Imprintation
by JessMissedHer
Summary: Claire is just a normal 15 year old trying to balance teenage life. The only not normal thing about her is her best friend: Quil Ateara, the werewolf that imprinted on her over a decade ago. How can Claire live a normal high school life when she knows her future is already set? Quil wouldn't change anything about their relationship but change might be exactly what Claire needs.
1. Chapter 1

18

CHAPTER 1

 **Claire:**

"Claire, do you want to be my partner?"

Claire's head immediately shot up to see Bennett Callahan asking her to be his partner for the major research project that Mr. Hillard had assigned. It would be due in three weeks and she knew that it would take almost all of her spare time from now until then to complete. She also knew how important it was to have a good partner if she was serious about getting a good grade. Not that Bennett would be a bad partner. She honestly had no idea. She'd never even talked to him before, none-the-less worked on a major project together with him. She didn't even know that he knew her name. But with no less than at least five people staring at her to see her reaction she didn't see how she could refuse. She could even see her best friend Macy staring at her from across the room with her eyebrows halfway to her hairline. Bennett was sitting three desks up and one over and had had to turned around and make quite the effort to ask her.

"Um, Sure!" she replied graciously

Bennett had moved to their Makah Reservation and enrolled at their high school about four and a half months ago at the end of the last school year. After his parents had had a pretty messy divorce, he and his mom had moved in with his grandparents. Or at least those were the rumors. Of course, Claire had seen him around, they went to a small school. They even had at least three classes together even though he was a full grade above her, and Macy had talked about nothing but how cute he was since the moment he had gotten there.

"Great." He responded casually with a smile at her

"WHEEEWWW!" cat called at least two students in the back-row.

Claire rolled her eyes.

 _Highschool,_ She thought to herself. _Always so immature._

The bell rang saving her from having to respond and releasing them from class and school, since it was the last period of the day. Relieved to have made it through another day she sighed and got up while grabbing her bag to leave.

"See you later, Claire!" Said Katie, the girl who sat adjacent to her and who she had expected to partner with for this major assignment.

"See you tomorrow, Katie!" She replied as she headed toward Macy's desk in the back. They usually walked out together but Macy seemed a little perturbed at her and she knew she was going to get crap from her because of this new "partnership".

As Claire had predicted, Macy immediately grabbed her arm and steered her out the door and a few feet away before pinning her down by a row of lockers.

"Wow, Macy, chill. Ouch much?" said Claire rubbing her arm a little tenderly.

Completely ignoring her Macy immediately jumped down her throat.

"Why didn't you tell me you've been talking to Bennett!? I was just telling you at lunch how hot he is in his football uniform! You could have at least given me a heads up! We knew this assignment was coming for weeks!" Macy all but silently shrieked at her.

"I haven't been talking to Bennett Callahan. No Really!" Claire said catching the look of complete skepticism that Macy was giving her "I didn't know he was going to ask me to be his partner or I _would have_ given you heads up. Look I'm going to be late for practice, and I still need to go by my locker. I'll see you tomorrow, Mace." And she walked away without looking back at her, hoping to end the conversation before Macy could continue.

Claire and Macy had been friends in middle school and then last year they had grown close when they had been the only two freshmen to make the junior cheer squad. This year had put a serious strain on their friendship when Claire had made the varsity cheer team and Macy had been cut all together. For such a small school, they had a very competitive cheerleading program. They didn't just cheer for their school's athletic programs but also competed with other school's cheer programs, sometimes even out of state. She and Macy had always roomed together whenever they went out of town to compete. Claire had had a lot of fun last year bonding with Macy while they traveled, and she was really going to miss her this year. She had wanted to tell Macy that, but couldn't think of a way to say it without it seeming like she was just rubbing it in her face that she had been cut while Claire was promoted.

Two hours later and Claire was in a mood. Practice had run long and not gone smoothly. The squad was still trying to get to know each other and see how they meshed together and it wasn't as smooth a transition as Claire had been hoping for, especially since she was the youngest girl on the team. She didn't even want to think about the fact that their first competition was next week.

She was one of the last ones left at school since all of the clubs and practices had already ended. Quil was supposed to pick her up today but he was late, another reason to be in a mood. Quil Ateara was the werewolf that had imprinted on her as a child. She knew that there had been a time before Quil was in her life, but she couldn't remember it. It seemed like every single memory she had (before cheerleading) had Quil in it. From pre-k to puberty, he had been there for it all, exactly the same, never changing.

The never changing part probably had something to do with the fact that he wasn't aging. Nope, that sucker had been stuck somewhere around twenty-five (or his body was at least) since he was seventeen and would continue to be until he stopped phasing into the giant brown wolf he could become at will. But Claire knew he wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop, he would start aging again, and he couldn't age yet, he was still waiting for her.

Waiting for her. It was something that they had never actually talked about, but it was always just a little bit there in the back of Claire's mind. It wasn't that they _couldn't_ talk about it, she could talk to Quil about anything. It was just more that she knew he probably thought she didn't know, and she would never want to make him feel weird by admitting that she did, after all it wasn't like they could be together _now_. Their age differences were still too big of a factor with her currently being half his age, so she didn't see what good it would do to talk about them being together in the future. It would probably just make Quil feel like some sort of giant creeper.

But she knew. She had been to every werewolf-imprint wedding and every Quileute bonfire since she was two. She saw how every other imprint pair were together. No, not pair. Couple. Every imprint couple. They were _ALL_ together. There was _that_ , and the things that every so often she would overhear, usually from the other imprints. " _Quil is adorable with little Claire, too bad for him he has to wait so long_ _for her to grow up"_ or " _Whew. Emily said Claire just hit puberty, that's got to be fun for Quil, I'm so glad Jared hadn't imprinted on me at that phase, he would probably never want to touch me again."_

Claire wasn't stupid, she was Quil's imprint, so he must be waiting for her so that they could be a couple. Sometimes it was a lot of pressure to be someone's soulmate, especially when that someone was over thirty and had already waited twelve years for her and she was still only fifteen. But it was her life, that was just the way it had always been. It was her normal, and she was used to it. Besides Quil himself never put pressure on her about it, he just seemed to love to be around her whatever age or stage of life she was in, and she liked having him in her life too. She would never trade away the pressure of being his imprint for not having him with her. What would her life even be like without Quil in it? Probably a lot more boring and a whole lot lonelier…. Something that most teenagers felt, but that she never had to.

Quil finally pulled up to pick Claire up after her cheer practice in his black Camaro. Claire loved that car and was secretly hoping that he'd teach her to drive in it in a few months. She hadn't asked him about it yet (not because he would be worried about his car, she knew he wouldn't worry or care about that) but because she knew that if she mentioned the fact that she would be able to drive in a few months he would just stress himself out, both about her potential safety and about the fact that she was old enough to. For someone who was technically waiting for her to grow up, he sure wasn't in a hurry for her to. In fact, she suspected that if he had the option to slow her growth rate down, he probably would.

"Hey, _Nino_ ," he said cheerfully as she got in. "sorry I'm late."

"Hey, _Quilliam_." She responded sarcastically.

She hated when he would use his nickname for her, so she was a little vindictive and used her nickname for him knowing that he hated it. He said it was the "white people" version of his name and he called it "just another bastardization of the culture the white people tried to steal from us" she would roll her eyes at that, he could be so dramatic sometimes.

She hated her nickname. Not because she minded being teased, but just because she found it so demeaning. _Nino_. It literally meant "child" and not just child but "male child". She had tried unsuccessfully to get him to at least switch to _Nina,_ but it hadn't taken, and she had been stuck with "male child" as his nickname for her. Probably through eternity.

"Wow, you're in a mood." He noticed immediately, picking up on her tone.

"I can't help it! I've had a crappy day. Plus, now I'm on my …." She drifted off, letting her sentence hang.

"…..period?" He finished for her. "Here I got this for you." he said handing her a grocery bag with a bar of chocolate and a box of tampons that for some reason was black with bright colors for the wording, before continuing,

"Did you know that they now make tampons in neon colors?! PHEW!" he mimed his mind being blown.

She knew he was teasing her now. She usually didn't mind being teased at all, especially by Quil, she just couldn't currently handle it with how awfully crappy she was feeling. He had however also picked her up a chocolate shake as well, that was always a game changer even on her worst period days.

"Ah!" She said diving for it after rolling her eyes at his antics, "Thanks, Quil. Hey how do you always know when I'm on my period? I never tell you."

"I'm psychic."

"I'm serious, how do you ALWAYS know, without fail." She insisted.

"You really want to know?" he asked dubiously

She nodded her head as she continued to suck down the shake.

"I can smell it." He said casually

"You…..can….smell…..it!? she asked appalled suddenly abandoning the shake.

"Yup. Wolf senses, remember?" he said casually while tapping his nose

"Ah!..." All she managed to get out was an utterly appalled squeak. She had been expecting him to have tracked it on his phone or something, but this. This was SO much worse. She couldn't even fathom anything in her world being more embarrassing than someone smelling her period, even Quil, who she was closer with than anyone else.

"You can smell my period?" She asked calmly managing to fake a much more serene tone than she was currently feeling.

He nodded unconcerned, while breaking off a piece of the chocolate bar in her hand and throwing it in his mouth.

"On me?"

He nodded again

"Like…. a dog in heat!?" she asked completely mortified now.

"Claire, it's really not that big a deal."

"Not that big a deal!? It's disgusting Quil, not to mention completely embarrassing!"

A new thought had just occurred to her, one that took this awkward situation from a ten on the scale of embarrassment to about a million. She gasped as she dropped the chocolate bar on the seat and brought her knees up to her chest, ignoring the cramp in her gut as she buried her face in her hands and tried to disappear.

"Why is it embarrassing? You've never been embarrassed that I knew you were on your period before." He pointed out.

She pulled her hands down to look at him in slight disbelieve as she explained in exasperation.

"It's not embarrassing that you know! I don't care that _you_ know,we've never kept secrets. It's embarrassing that you can _smell_ it! And not just you, but EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of your PACK can smell when I'm on my period!"

She thought back to last month when she had her period and had gone with Quil to the end for summer bar-ba-que at Collin's place… there had been at least five wolves there. She put her face back in her hands, completely horrified. She felt Quil put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, honey. If it makes you feel better, it's not _just_ you. We can smell it on any woman. Rachel started hers on Tuesday." He said in a soothing voice still seeming unconcerned like he thought it wasn't worth her being upset about it.

"Great, now Rachel and I are synching up cycles. Even more to be excited about!" she said dramatically as she threw her hands up in the air.

Rachel was Claire's older sister. They were only two years apart but _completely_ different people and had a hard time getting along, even on their best days, forget about both on their period days!

Quil just laughed like he thought Claire had the best sense of humor. He probably did, after all she had no secrets from him and he had none from her.

 **Quil:**

 _Poor Claire_ , he knew that she was absolutely mortified that he, along with the other wolves could smell when she had her period. He shouldn't have told her at all and wouldn't have if he had been thinking, and not just in such a hurry to do whatever made her happy. Like always. He just couldn't help it. She was so perfect, of course she should be happy, and the imprint pull was a powerful force. Her joy was what he fed off of and her pain physically hurt him. Including her period. She was such a trooper about it though, she never complained, and he knew the cramps made her downright miserable sometimes and the mood swings could not have been fun for her to deal with. Unlike Rachel who Quil found to be a major whiner; anything but a trooper. _ESPECIALLY_ when _she_ had her period.

Like right then as she marched across the kitchen screaming that there was "Nothing to eat in this house!" He and Claire were sitting at the kitchen table where he was pretending to help Claire with her algebra 2 homework. Really, she was helping him study for his GED exam, between solving equations.

 _This girl is so smart. I swear I don't know how I'm going to keep up with her._ He thought to himself. He had (like most wolves) dropped out of high school after he had phased for the first time, it was kind of hard to not fall behind in geometry when you were constantly fighting what seemed to be the ever-growing vampire population next door, and sometimes even assisting them in their wars with each other. When things had finally started to settle down and the bloodsuckers started moving away, he had gone to a trade school when Claire was still little and between what he had learned there and everything that his best friend Jake had taught him he had become the best mechanic for at least 50 miles. He even owned his own garage…. Well owned is a relative term. He was still paying off a small business loan.

But he was worried that Claire would want to go away to college in a few years and he figured he needed to be prepared to go with her or get left behind, which wasn't going to happen on his watch. But colleges, even the crappy ones he was sure he would be applying to, require a diploma or at least a GED. Besides how could he ever even consider himself to be worthy to even be around someone as awesome as Claire when he didn't even have a high school diploma? She was really the reason he was doing it, but really everything he did was basically for her in one way or another.

He took a break from his stupid GED prep course book and looked up after Rachel stalked out. That was when he noticed how even while she was intently working out a problem in her homework, Claire had one arm wrapped around herself squeezing the life out of her tiny waist and her other elbow propped up on the table, supporting her head in her small hand while she stared down a problem that looked like it had personally offended her. She was obviously uncomfortable, if not in serious pain. She had changed when they got there into a pair of leggings and a giant gray Seattle Seahawks hoodie that up until a year ago had belonged to him. It was at least as old as she was; he had bought it as a teenager. But she had loved it. So, he willingly parted with it for her. _But be honest, what do I own that I wouldn't give to Claire if it made her happy?_ He mused to himself as he got up from the table and grabbed the bottle of Midol from the cupboard and the rest of her shake off of the counter where she had left it.

"Here, take this Claire. It'll help." He said as he set them down in front of her on the table. She hadn't looked up in at least five minutes and hadn't picked up her pencil to write anything down in all that time, so he knew she wasn't actually working on her homework so much as suffering through her period in silence.

"Thanks, Quil." She sighed gratefully.

He sat down next to her and started rubbing his hand up down her back in the soothing way that he knew usually comforted her while she popped two pills in her mouth and drained the rest of her shake in one big pull from her straw.

"You doing alright?" He asked her concerned.

"I'm fine, it's just this stupid homework."

He knew that wasn't true, but she was such a soldier about it all. He wondered briefly if she was truly as impressive as he believed or if it was just the imprint making him biased towards her. But then Rachel walked into the kitchen practically screeching that she was hungry, and he thought _Nope. Not biased._ _She really is that impressive._

Claire's dad Robert walked through the door with a tired look on his face. He seemed to just be getting home from the community college two towns over where he was an Art History professor. He was at least three hours later than his usual arrival in the middle of the afternoon.

"Hey, Dad." Claire acknowledged him at the same time that Rachel started whining "Dad, I'm STARVING, what's for dinner?"

"Hey guys." He greeted Quil and Claire at the table, and then "Rachel, it's your night to make dinner."

 _Yikes, um no thanks._ Quil thought to himself before quickly saying,

"Why don't I go pick up some pizzas? It's getting late and I think everyone's already hungry."

Robert shot him a look like he was drowning and Quil had just thrown him a life preserver.

"Great idea, Quil!" He said while handing him twenty bucks. Just enough to cover two large pizzas with the understanding that he would have to cover the cost of the other two pizzas that would more likely than not be entirely consumed by him. Claire's parents had given up on trying to feed Quil's massive appetite years ago.

"Yeah, I could definitely use a break from this." Claire said with a sigh as she gestured towards her algebra homework. "Besides then we can pick up Jamie from the Calls on our way." She added as an afterthought.

"Your mother hasn't picked up Jamie yet?" Robert asked concerned about Claire's four-year-old brother who practically worshipped her as much as Quil did.

"I don't think she's gotten off of work yet." Claire answered.

"Oh really?!" He asked perturbed.

 _Uh-oh_ Quilthought, he had noticed a growing tension between Robert and Susan (Claire's mother) for about the last six months. But Claire hadn't seemed to pick up on it and if she hadn't noticed than he wasn't going to add stress to her life by pointing it out.

"We'd better hurry if we want to pick Jamie up before we grab the pizzas" Quil said as he started steering Claire toward the door before Robert could say anything else that might enlighten Claire to the troubles in paradise.

They quickly grabbed Claire's shoes and headed out the door. Once in the car and with a twenty-minute drive to La Push (to pick up Jamie first) Quil finally asked her,

"So, you never told me why you'd had such a crappy day."

"Oh well... practice didn't go well, and our first competition is next week... So that's stressful, plus I have this huge history assignment due in three weeks that was assigned today, and I don't even know my partner. And of course, Macy is mad at me. Again!" She told him simply.

 _Yikes_ he thought. He hadn't remembered high school being this complicated when he was in it, but maybe being a teenaged girl was just a lot harder than being a teenaged boy. He wasn't sure which thread to even pull first so he just went for it.

"Macy is mad at you, again? Why? Is this still because she got cut?" He asked.

"No. Well… that's still probably an underlying reason but this time it's because this kid that she has been majorly crushing on for the past few months is going to be my partner for that project that was assigned today. I mean I guess I see her side, it MUST be frustrating to constantly see me "getting" (she did little air quotes around the word) the things she wants, but at the same time, what am I supposed to do about it?" She explained and Quil could tell there were some definite feelings of frustration there. He knew that this strain on her friendship with Macy had been weighing on her lately and he'd hoped that by now it would have cleared itself up. Quil was definitely starting to feel like now that Claire was in the middle of high school and in the thick of things he was out of his depth when it came to helping her navigate these waters.

"Well that's really unfair." He replied.

"What do you mean?" She asked sounding confused.

"How can Macy be mad at you because you were assigned to the kid she likes?"

 _I'll never understand teenage girls…_ he thought to himself, luckily Claire always still made sense to him, but a big part of that was probably just her willingness to share everything with him.

"Oh, well it wasn't an assigned partnership, and I'm sure she was hoping to get to work with him on it herself." She responded

"Well if it wasn't assigned than how did you end up with him as your partner?" He asked curiously. The warning bells had started ringing in the back of his head. That happened any time he felt like something that might be threatening to Claire's welfare came up.

"He asked me to be." She responded simply. "Made quite the little show of it actually."

Bells getting louder…

"He made a show?" Quil asked confused

"He just asked me in front of a bunch of people, like half the class heard him. There was no way I could say no without looking like a total jerk-face. He did it first thing too when Mr. Hillard told us to find partners, so it wasn't like I could say that I already had one." She explained

Yeah, he understood now, and it definitely explained the warning bells. But he wanted to see Claire's take on it.

"Why would he do that?" He asked pretending to be innocent about it.

"I don't know, probably because I have one of the best grades in the class. I mean I've never even spoken to him before, so I can't imagine why else he'd want to be with me." She responded

 _Sure,_ (he thought sarcastically) _THAT'S why._

"Well it's still not your fault, Claire, I think Macy is being pretty unfair about it."

"I get it though, it's a crappy situation for her and I'm sure I'd respond the same if I was her." She said resigned.

Quil seriously doubted that.

"Maybe tomorrow I can suggest to him we switch partners. I could just pretend I promised to work with her partner and then she'd get to be with him." Claire mused to him

"Yeah, I doubt that would go over well." Quil said. "But this is Macy's problem, not yours, don't let it get to you."

"I just wish she hadn't been cut! Everything would be so much easier if she was still on the squad." Claire sighed frustrated at the situation.

"So, why did practice not go well?" He asked distracted by her cheerleading struggles, and they spent the rest of the short drive discussing it until they got to La Push.

As they pulled up in front of the Calls house Quil couldn't help but think about how strange it still was to him that Embry's mom had gotten married and then had another kid. Especially since Embry's (much littler) brother was only a year older than Embry's own child. After years of being a lone wolf (literally) Embry had finally imprinted on a girl a few years ago. Arabella was actually a white girl (so that surprised everyone) she was a student at the University of Washington and had come up to the reservation to do research for a Professor who she was actually dating at the time (Embry didn't find that out until later though). Quil guessed that she'd had a thing for older guys. After all Embry was close to ten years older than her, even if he did look closer to twenty than thirty. They got married all of 3 months later and had had a little girl a year after that.

Claire had run into the house to grab Jamie while Quil waited in the car, he would have gone with her, but Embry's mom had a tendency to want to reminisce about the "good ol' days" which took about twenty minutes every time and he really was starting to get hungry. Two minutes later Claire was back with Jamie in tow, carrying his backpack, his car booster and his jacket while Jamie himself just wandered behind as if he didn't have a care in the world (to be fair, he was only four and probably didn't) Quil just laughed and hopped out to help Claire by grabbing the booster and putting in the back seat before grabbing Jamie unexpectedly and throwing him in the air while making rocket sounds, Jamie laughed hysterically and Quil kept going until Claire said,

"Quil, you better put him down before he gets all worked up and ends up screaming the whole way home."

That seemed like a fair point, so he quickly passed him off to Claire who buckled him in behind her seat before climbing back in the car.

Quil had been thinking about when Claire had been that age and how much fun they'd always had together, he kind of missed that, but then again, he really liked Claire now and figured that he wouldn't trade her, even for adorable toddler Claire.

Everyone who knew the truth about their situation (that he was a wolf, and that Claire was his imprint) had always had this attitude that he was unfortunate to have imprinted on such a young child. But he had never felt that way. He had loved watching Claire learn and grow and he felt like he had been blessed to have so much more time with her than all of the other wolves got with their imprints. He had had a lot of flak about her teenage years too, like he would just have to suffer through them until she was an adult, but he had really enjoyed Claire these past couple of years and had never wished this time away.

Claire had been talking calmly to Jamie in the back seat as he had been almost screaming at her to give him his "doll" from his "packpack". Technically it was an action figure in his backpack and Quil usually found Jamie's small discrepancies hilarious but tonight he was stoned face as he was musing about Claire and her ages.

"Hey, Mr. Serious, why so intense tonight?" Claire asked while poking his side good naturedly.

"Sorry!" He said coming out of his small trance, "I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking about so seriously?" She asked perplexed

"You." He said with a smile towards her.

Well that wasn't unusual, Quil thought about Claire almost all of the time.

"Me? What about me?" She asked.

"Just your age, I was remembering when you were Jamie's age and how much fun we had."

She rolled her eyes at him as she finally found Jamie's "doll" of Batman and handed it back to him. He couldn't do anything without that thing.

"It's kind of weird. Most kids have a comfort item, like Jamie's 'doll'. You never had anything like that, I guess you've just always been kind of independent." He mused out loud to her.

"Yeah I did. I had that one stuffy that I couldn't do anything without. I couldn't even sleep remember?" She replied.

"What? What stuffy?" He couldn't recall Claire being extra connected to any stuffed animal. He was suddenly worried that he was forgetting things about Claire's childhood.

"Yeah that really fluffy wolf. I never did anything without it remember?" She was starting to laugh now. Quil was feeling boarder line panicked that he couldn't remember this, what else had he lost in the sieve of his memory?

"What wolf!? What did it look like?" He asked probably too intensely

She was definitely laughing now. And so was Jamie in the backseat. What!? Jamie was only four, how could he remember something and Quil forget it?! It must have been really important to Claire for Jamie to notice; how could he have forgotten something that important to her!?

"Oh, you know, it was big and dark brown and really soft and fluffy." She said while laughing

"Claire, I'm so sorry! I don't remember anything like that! I must be forgetting things…. I can't believe-"

"Quil!" She cut him off, he was obviously getting worked up and Jamie was laughing so hard in the backseat Quil wasn't sure he was getting enough oxygen.

"It was you!" She laughed. " _You_ were my wolf!"

He was frozen for a second as that sunk in, then a smile spread across his face.

"Are you calling me a stuffy?!" He asked in feign indignation. Jamie shrieked with another pearl of laughter.

"Yeah, and soft and fluffy!" Claire responded. Laughing harder at Jamie's reaction.

Quil had never considered that _he'd_ been her comfort item but in retrospect he realized that that was true, he had been. He'd even been known to phase into his dark brown wolf-self just so that Claire could snuggle in his fur and play with him like some giant overgrown dog. He smiled just remembering how she couldn't get enough of it.

By the time they got home with the pizzas Jamie had fallen asleep. He thought Claire was grabbing his backpack while he grabbed the pizzas but when he looked over he saw that she had unbuckled Jamie and was pulling him out of his booster and flopping him onto her shoulder.

"Claire, I'll grab him, you just get his stuff." He said in a stage whisper

"I've got him." She told him with a wink.

Jamie was at least half her size, if not more. After all he was a big kid for his age and she was not. But his head was shlumped on her shoulder as she shifted his weight up a little higher so that her arms were locked around him under his little butt.

Claire was always very maternal with Jamie. She was probably his number one caregiver with her parents taking second place when it came to meeting Jamie's needs. Quil knew that if she hadn't _wanted_ him in her arms than she would have waited for Quil to grab him, though it was still more weight in her arms than Quil was comfortable seeing. But then when did he not give Claire whatever she wanted?

 **Claire:**

Claire didn't know if she had ever been so full in her entire life. For whatever stupid reason she had decided to keep up with Quil in pizza eating. Even if she couldn't eat as much she figured she could at least eat as fast. She had been wrong. She wished that she hadn't even tried. She got two and a half slices in when she knew she would puke if she kept going. Quil had been on his sixth slice at the time and continued through about ten more. She was currently laying on her back on the family room floor wanting to die. Quil thought it was hilarious that she had made such a "cute" attempt to keep up with him and she was feeling pretty stupid about the whole thing.

He was lying next to her holding her hand with his four giant fingers wrapped around her four small ones while using his thumb to rub circles over the entire back of her hand. That was how he always held her hand. She actually felt a little better on her left side, with his too hot skin warming her from a few inches away, than her right side did all alone. She wondered, not for the first time, how much affect the imprint magic had physically. They always did better when they were actually touching. She knew how important it was to Quil, that he needed to have some form of physical contact with her each day. It was as if he couldn't trust his own eyes, that he needed to feel her to know that she was there, safe and close to him.

She was debating asking him to switch over to her other side so that she could receive a more even coating of his healing love radiating over her. She chuckled to herself a little, reminding herself of one of her mom's recipes for baked chicken that she had made the other day. Bake for twenty minutes at 375 degrees and then flip chicken over and bake for twenty more minutes. He looked at her when he heard her laugh and smiled at her like he was just enjoying the sound of her.

He sighed and said, "Alright sweetheart, I got to get going."

"What!?" she asked, immediately grabbing her phone out of the pocket of the massive hoodie she was wearing. Yup, right there on the lock screen was a notification from her calendar that Quil had patrol with Leah tonight.

"Crap! How did I miss that?" she asked while dropping Quil's hand and smacking her forehead.

"You forgot?" he asked looking concernedly at her.

"Yeah, I guess I did. Alright…. well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." She told him trying not to feel too distressed by his unexpected absence tonight.

"Tomorrow?" he asked skeptically "You don't want me to stay over tonight?"

Quil had started sleeping in Claire's bed with her when she had turned three and started waking up and calling out for him in the middle of the night. Her parents would try to sooth her back to sleep but after an hour or two would inevitably call Quil. He was still living with his mom in La Push at the time and would either have to drive the twenty minutes up to the Makah Reservation or run as his wolf-self and make it in about three minutes but be stuck without a car in the morning. Eventually when he finished trade school and bought the garage there on the Reservation he had moved into the studio apartment above it. That way he was never more than a few seconds away from Claire.

Over the years as she started sleeping better he had cut down to only one or two nights a week staying over. But when she had turned twelve and then eventually started puberty her parents had put their foot down and deemed it in understandably inappropriate for a grown man to be sleeping nights in their twelve-year old's bed.

That had worked for all of a month and then she got her period again, this time with some major cramps. She had cried herself to sleep missing him and in pain. The next morning Quil had taken one look at her, knew exactly what happened and was _not_ happy about it. That night was the first time that Quil had spent the night there behind her parents back. Claire knew that if he felt that she truly needed him, there was really nothing that would stop him. He had spent the whole night holding her and rubbing her back while she used his giant hand as a heating pad on her abdomen. From that night on, he snuck in at least once or twice a month to comfort her and hold her until they both fell asleep. That had been over three years ago, and her parents still had no idea. They always seemed to underestimate Quil's super natural abilities, even forgetting that he was a wolf sometimes. If he couldn't sneak past them, he would just scale the siding of the house and come through Claire's second story window. They had been caught one time last year by Jamie, when he walked into Claire's room unannounced at six AM but he was too used to always seeing Quil around, and too innocent to think anything of it. Plus, Jamie would never want to get Claire in trouble.

"You don't have to stay over. You won't even get off patrol until three. You should just go home and get some rest; besides I still have homework to work on. I'm sure I'll just crash halfway through it." She lied casually.

He just rolled his eyes at her less than honest response. "Just take some Midol before you go to bed and try to fall asleep as best you can and then I'll come over as soon as I get off my shift, alright?" he said while pulling her head over to meet his and then planted a kiss on her hair.

She did a quick cough to indicated that he should stop talking about it as her mom walked in the door. She didn't even seem to notice them as she walked past into the kitchen. That was odd. Her mom wasn't usually so out of it, even when she had long work days. But before she could dive into thinking about it Quil was standing up to leave. He quickly used their connected hands and pulled Claire up with him. She immediately gave him a full hug around the waist. She wasn't usually so touchy feely, but she still felt a little sick and crampy and not happy about his leaving her unexpectedly. The top of her head just reached his collarbone and she leaned against his chest as she pressed her head against his heart and listened to his, always over-fast heartbeat. He just pressed the side of his face to the top of her head and stood there holding her for at least three more minutes, until they heard Leah's always impatient wolf howl cry for him through the night.

He sighed. "I gotta go, hun. I'll be back as soon as I can." and then planted another kiss on her head. She just nodded her head against his chest and dropped her arms from his waist.

Claire knew that it was essentially his sacred duty to protect his tribe, and now by extension her tribe, he ran patrol at least once or twice a week, but he always gave her his schedule ahead of time and she would put it in her calendar and be prepared for it. That way she would always know where he was at any given time. She had just assumed because she had started her period and would be uncomfortable that he would be there with her the whole time and hadn't thought to look at the schedule to check his shifts.

She started to shake out her arms and neck, trying to get out of the funk that Quil's leaving had left her in. She needed to help Jamie get ready for bed anyways. She could hear him upstairs splashing around in the bathroom she shared with him, her room technically had a Jack-and-Jill bathroom that she was supposed to share with Rachel but sharing with Rachel was so uncomfortable that she preferred sharing with Jamie. Even If his aim was _terrible_ when it came to the toilet situation.

Her dad had obviously stuck him in the tub and then forgotten about him when he got distracted talking to her mom in their room. Claire went upstairs and into Jamie's room where she grabbed him a clean pair of batman briefs to go with his clean Spiderman pajamas (he could never wear the same super hero at the same time) she made a mental note to make sure to change the sheets of his bed on Saturday when she did laundry and changed her own sheets. She then went into the bathroom to make sure that some soap was involved in his bathing process. She brushed her teeth and washed her face as she supervised his bath and then helped him towel off and get dressed. She quickly brushed his teeth for him and then lovingly did a quick swat on his butt and told him to go pick out a book.

She realized that she had left her backpack on the kitchen table and went downstairs to get it. She spotted the Midol bottle on the table where she had left it and remembering the advice that Quil had given her, stuck it in the pocket of her hoodie while she grabbed a glass of water. She took everything upstairs and left it all on the desk in her bedroom before she went back into Jamie's room to find him sitting on his bed with five books surrounding him.

"Come on, James. Only one book tonight. You know it's a school night and that I have to get up early tomorrow." She told him sternly.

He started to whine at her but then caught the look on her face and realized she was serious.

"Okay…I want this one!" he said pointing at a book that had something to do with Goofy and some sort of haunted pumpkin.

As soon as Claire closed the door to Jamie's room a few minutes later, she could hear some whiney music coming from Rachel's room. _Who even listens to Avril Lavine anymore?_ She asked herself as she walked past her door and headed into her own room. She wanted to grab the video baby monitor they still used to watch Jamie, from its cradle in her parent's room but could still hear them locked in there, speaking in hushed voices, so instead she went into her room and pulled her algebra homework back out.

An hour later, with one impossible assignment completed, she was exhausted. It was already after ten and she had another full day tomorrow that started with packing his lunch and making sure that Jamie got off okay since her mom had an early shift checking on the infants at the hospital in Port Angeles since her mom was a pediatrician. Claire would be annoyed that Rachel didn't take more responsibility when it came to Jamie but if she was being honest with herself she didn't actually trust Rachel to take care of him.

She changed into her pajamas and then decide to put her hoodie back on. It still smelled vaguely of Quil from when she had hugged him before. She climbed into her bed and popped another Midol in her mouth before she took a drink of water to swallow it down. She turned off the lamp on her bedside table and tried to go to sleep.

It took about an hour of tossing and turning but she finally fell into a fitful sleep dreaming of Quil teaching her to drive his Camaro. She woke up about once an hour and checked the clock. 12:30. 1:27. 2:15. She kept tossing around until she got comfortable and then would finally go back to sleep. Eventually, she woke up to feel Quil getting into her bed and pulling her into his chest, she hadn't even heard him come in through her window, but she was so relieved that he was finally there that she didn't care how he'd gotten there. He didn't say anything, he just kissed the top of her head as he started rubbing her back and allowing her to place his hand on her stomach to heat it. She sighed deeply and finally fell into a deep sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

It was 10:35 am and Claire was already exhausted.

She had gotten up at 6:30, left Quil sleeping in her bed, and took a quick shower. She had gotten out when she realized there was no hot water because Rachel was showering at the same time in her bathroom and her mother must have already showered and left by now. After checking the time on her phone Claire realized she didn't have time to blow dry her hair since she still had to get Jamie ready. She pulled it all into a French braid down the side, hoping that it'd dry before school started, and then put on her makeup.

Ten minutes later she was waking Jamie up and carrying him down the stairs because she didn't have time to wait for him to groggily walk. She plopped him on his booster seat at the table and put an apple in front of him before running back upstairs and grabbing him a clean outfit and then her backpack from where she had left it outside her bedroom door. She was packing up Jamie's lunch box when Rachel left for school, she just walked down the stairs with her earbuds in and out the door without so much as a glance in her siblings' direction. They were so used to this behavior from her that Jamie didn't even notice, but it still irked Claire. Two minutes later she grabbed a muffin and her water bottle, grabbed Jamie's hand and with a quick "Let's go!" had run out the door.

She was walking down the hallway between classes and replaying her early morning events in her mind when she realized she had completely forgotten about Quil in her bed. Slapping her palm to her forehead, she quickly pulled her phone out of the front pocket of her backpack to send Quil a quick apology text. Just as she got her fingers around it, it vibrated indicating an incoming message. She was looking down to check it when the sound of someone calling her name made her look up,

"Hey, Claire! Wait up!"

Pulling her phone out and zipping the pocket closed she turned around to see Bennett Callahan making his way toward her through the crowded hallway.

"Oh, hey Bennett. What's up?"

He had managed to make it to her but had to keep moving to keep up with her since she was determined to make it to her locker before her next class. A class he was in, so she didn't understand why he was stopping her now.

"So, I was wondering if you wanted to get together after school today to get started on our research project?" he asked her, speaking rather quickly and loudly over the noise in the hallway.

"Um I can't after school, I have cheerleading practice….and you have football practice, remember?" she informed him while trying to stay polite about it all.

"Oh right." He said sounding a little bemused. "Well what about after that?"

"I'm sorry, I can't today. After cheer I need to pick my younger brother up…" and then realizing that it was starting to sound like she was trying to blow him off she continued eagerly, "but I'm free tomorrow after school, since neither of us has practice before the game. Would that work?"

"Sounds great." He said smiling cheerfully. "It's a date! See you in English!" and he walked away to their next class.

 _Uh-oh,_ Claire thought. She knew that Macy would not be happy about this and was just glad that she wasn't also in their English class with them. She knew it wasn't a real date. It was a homework date. That didn't mean anything, but she knew that Macy wouldn't see it that way.

She had just made it to her locker and had to hurriedly grab her English workbook and shove her algebra 2 textbook in. The bell rang as she was closing her locker. _Great,_ she was now tardy. She hurried into English and Ms. Blithe gave her a major stink eye when she walked in late but didn't respond in any other way. Setting her stuff down at her desk she realized that she still had her phone in her hand. She sat down quickly but was wearing a casual Black floral cotton dress and it didn't have any pockets. Fortunately, the jean-vest she was wearing over it had side pockets and she quickly shoved her phone in before the teacher could confiscate it. Ms. Blithe was not known for her mercy.

She pulled her notebook out of her bag and grabbed her favorite purple pencil as she prepared to take notes and then stealthily checked her phone. There was a text from her mom making sure that Jamie got to daycare alright and a message from Quil saying that he'd just woken up and asking why he had missed her this morning, she quickly replied to Quil;

GM Sleepyhead, sorry I ran out of time this AM. Jamie. Will ttyl.

When she looked up a second later to start her notes, she noticed Bennett two rows up and over two seats and was turned around in his seat waiting for her to make eye contact with him, as soon as she did, he gave her a smile and briefly lifted his eyebrows at her before letting them drop again as he turned back toward the board. She felt her heart rate immediately increase and she tentatively smiled back at him even though he couldn't see her. _Uh-oh,_ she thought. Maybe a homework date _did_ mean something after all.

The next day as soon as the bell rang, and history class ended she started to feel her heart rate increase. It was a game day tradition, but she wished that she didn't have to wear her cheer uniform all day. The polyester always made her feel sweaty and with this homework "date" scheduled for any second now she was definitely starting to feel some nervous sweats coming on. Did she have time to run and get the deodorant out of her gym bag in her locker? She suddenly wished she had done something more original with her hair than a high strait ponytail, but it was cheerleader tradition… at least she wasn't wearing that stupid giant cheer bow that they all had to wear at the top of their hair for the game.

She noticed Macy waiting to walk out with her as usual and got even more nervous. _Crap!_ She had completely forgotten about Macy!

Taking a big breath to help her gather her courage, she grabbed her bag and headed over to meet her. Claire was pretty sure whatever was about to happen would not be helped by the fact that she was wearing her cheer uniform. She met Macy by her desk, with a "Hey Mace." They had managed to shake off their minor dispute from Wednesday and she wanted to keep things as casual between them as possible.

"Hey Claire, what are you doing until the game? I'm thinking we should get a group together and go to Bubba's and then all head to the game together." Bubba's was their only local burger place. Claire had to remind herself to just rip off the band-aid and get it over with as quickly as possible.

"That sounds like fun, but I can't Macy, I'm actually about to meet up with Bennett to start working on our project." She told her truthfully.

"Oh okay. Well I'll see you at the game, right?" Macy replied sounding unfazed.

Claire was almost stunned with how well she was taking it, but quickly decided not to question it. They were walking out then and as soon as they got through the door she could see Bennett leaning against the lockers a few feet away, waiting for her.

"Yeah definitely! I'll see you then!" she waved as she walked the other direction towards Bennett and away from Macy.

"Hey!" he said brightly as she come up to him.

"Hi." She answered a little nervously. She suddenly wished that she had pockets, so she would have a place to stick her sweaty palms. Instead she settled for wiping them against the pleats of her cheer skirt as she straightened it over her legs.

"Do you want to work in the library? I figure that's probably the best spot." He said to her.

"Yeah, I think that's a great idea." She answered casually trying not to convey how hard her heart was pounding as they started to head to the library together. _It's just a homework assignment!_ She immediately chastised herself for her irrational reaction.

She pulled her phone out of her backpack as they walked. "Sorry, I just have to make sure my sister picks up my little brother today." she apologized. She always hated it when her friends would look at their phones constantly, instead of making eye contact. Bennett just shrugged one shoulder and responded casually, "no problem".

She looked at her phone to see a text from Quil asking if she wanted to get together before the game. She hadn't told him about her homework "date". She wasn't specifically trying to hide it, she just felt nervous about it and wasn't sure if it was even a _thing_ , so she didn't want Quil to make a big deal about it. She quickly responded that she couldn't because she had a study session but that she'd see him tonight. Then she typed a message to Rachel.

Please pick up Jamie at 3. I CAN'T. Don't forget and don't forget to bring him to the game tonight if you come.

She hit send and then immediately wrote another message to her.

DON'T FORGET JAMIE.

She hit send again. Sometimes it took a lot to get through to Rachel, on second thought she figured she should have a backup plan. She quickly wrote to Quil again

Could you double check that Jamie makes it home from daycare today? Rachel is supposed to pick him up at 3 but…..

She heard the ding that indicated a text. It was from Rachel.

No duh. Thanks mom

She didn't even bother responding. Another ding. From Quil;

….it's Rachel….Yup I've got him covered. See you at the game.

"Okay, I'm all yours." She said as she put her phone back in her bag, they had just walked into the library. She saw a smile spread across Bennett's face at her words and she quickly changed the subject before she could get embarrassed.

"Where do you want to sit?"

She followed him as he led her to a nearby table with a set of lab computers on it. They sat down and signed in to the computers with their student ID's.

"So, got any ideas for our subject?" she asked. She was already breathing easier now that they actually had something to focus on and talk about.

They had been assigned to research the cultural influences of World War II for their project, but it felt like such a broad subject that they would probably need to narrow it down a bit.

"Um nope… Sorry, I guess I should have given it a little thought beforehand..." He answered apologetically, "What about you? Any ideas?"

"Well I was think that if we start wi-" she started to answer but was cut off when Bennett started speaking again.

"What are you doing for homecoming?" He asked all in a single breath.

"What?" she asked completely stunned and confused. She couldn't tell if he was changing the subject or somehow wanting to make homecoming a part of their project.

"Claire, the real reason I asked you to be my partner was actually so that I could find out what your plans are for Homecoming." He confessed honestly, "So…. What are your plans?" he was leaning back in his chair with it turned slightly to face her sitting next to him. He had his elbows on the arms and his fingers pressed together in front of his chest while pulsating them together back and forth to bring his palms closer together and then farther apart, like he was waiting for spiritual guidance from a guru or something.

Claire secretly thought he was pretty cute with his quiet confidence and slightly bohemian sense of style. She was immediately flattered and nervous from his confession. She wanted to assume his interest in her homecoming plans stemmed from an interest in her, but she didn't want to be arrogant and since he hadn't actually expressed an interest in _her_ she thought it best to assume he wasn't until she knew otherwise.

"Um…well I'm cheering of course. We're actually performing the half time show with the marching band, so it's our biggest school-based event of the year." She told him truthfully. Homecoming was in two weeks and the squad was in major crunch time to get the show together.

"Do you have a date for the dance?" he asked innocently while continuing his posture.

"No…" she answered nervously. She hadn't even thought about the dance. Thinking back she realized that she probably should have, Macy had spent their entire lunch hour talking about what she wanted her dress to look like.

"Well would you be my date?" he asked managing to pull off a fairly casual vibe about the whole thing.

"Um…." She responded unsure. She felt like she might be starting to have a panic attack.

His Date. To Homecoming. _Okay, okay, no big deal, Claire, this very cute boy wants you to be his date. No big Deal, No big deal. Oh crap! What about Macy!? How am I going to tell her that he asked ME?! She'll probably rip my face off! And what about Quil? OH MY GOSH, QUIL! Quil. What will Quil think? What will Quil say?! Am I even ALLOWED to date boys? I mean Quil has already been waiting for me for years…but it's not exactly like HE can take me to homecoming…but that also doesn't mean that he wants someone else to. Should I even go? Maybe I should just say no._

She had worked her way up to just telling him no when she finally looked up at him and saw how he finally looked nervous for the first time. Her heart did a little lurch and it felt like it ripped in half a little bit and the Quil part of her heart separated from the part that always made her feel young and free, and a little stupid, and a little immature. And while leading with that part of her heart she quickly answered before she could think about it too much.

"Yes."

"Yes? You'll go with me?" he asked sounding surprised.

"Yes, I'll go with you." She responded without giving herself a chance to change her mind.

His smile put her heart at ease, which was good. She had definitely been worried that as soon as she said yes, she would regret it. Relieved that that wasn't the case she said,

"Now can we start working? I only have an hour until I need to be on the field."

"Oh, right right right!" Bennett answered like he had completely forgotten about the project now that he had accomplished his mission of finding out her plans for homecoming.

He finally turned to his computer and started searching through Wikipedia and then following onto reference sites. Claire was grateful for the chance to try to force her heart back into a normal rhythm as she leaned closer to try to look at his screen he was turning towards her. The only lingering thought she had left as they started working was, _what am I going to tell Quil?_

Claire was pacing back and forth in her bedroom. The game had ended 3 hours ago, and she had lied to Quil. Actually, _LIED to_ him. She had spent the entire game feeling increasing amounts of anxiety about the fact that she had agreed to be Bennett Callahan's date to homecoming. She had even had a hard time remembering the routines she was supposed to be focusing on while she cheered during the game. She was a basket-case and she knew it. It wasn't that she didn't want to go. If she was being honest with herself, she did want to… really badly too, or that she didn't like Bennett, once she had actually stopped to think about it she realized that she did really like him. He was incredibly cute and funny, what was there not to like? But she just couldn't get the thought out of her head that she was betraying Quil by going. She was at a constant war with herself, stuck between being elated that Bennett had asked her and being ashamed with herself for even wanting to go with him in the first place. She couldn't even bring herself to face poor Quil, who had no idea what was wrong with her.

As soon as the game ended she texted him that the squad was going out to celebrate the victory and that she would see him tomorrow. He replied and asked her if she wanted to drop off Jamie at home first and then he would drop her off with the squad. She knew that he was just trying to find a chance to see her at all that day, but she was so panicked about seeing him that she just replied;

Can't. don't have time. Macy is meeting us there and I'm hoping to make nice finally. See you tomorrow?

He took the hint and replied that he would see her the next day.

She had waited in the girl's locker room for the stadium to clear out and then gotten a ride home from some late stragglers. She had spotted him at the game. He was sitting in the stands next to Seth and Leah. Seth had brought the twins with him and he was holding one of the anxious eight-month-olds while Quil held the other. Leah sat between them and kept trying to keep the twins entertain the whole time. Quil had even brought Jamie with him, because of course typical Rachel had bailed. Her parents had joined them sometime during the third quarter.

She normally would have found moments to go visit with the group, especially Leah who she didn't get to see often. She knew that most people had a hard time getting along with Leah, but Claire LOVED her. They were like bosom sisters. Leah always seemed to have more patience with Claire than she had for most people and she _still_ hadn't imprinted on anyone. She would have quit phasing and started aging already except that she could never keep her emotions in check long enough to not phase on accident.

Claire had found excuses to stay on the field during the cheer breaks, talking to her coach, or running to the bathroom, or even running to her gym bag in the locker-room during the dance team's half time show. She knew that Quil knew something was up, but she was positive that he didn't realize that she was actually avoiding him… at least until the text messages.

She felt incredibly guilty for lying to him and avoiding him. The only times they had ever gone whole days without seeing each other were last year when she had traveled with the junior cheer squad and even then, they had talked on the phone everyday (the squad had actually thought that she had some secret boyfriend). That was when she had stolen his Seahawks hoodies, just so that she could wear it and feel close to him.

She continued to try to pace her anxious-energy out. ( _she walked toward the window and then flipped around and walked back toward the bed)._ The worst part was the imprint magic constantly tugging on her that she _needed_ to see him. ( _she moved back toward the window)_. To feel him close and secure and know that he would always be there. ( _and back to the bed_ ) She had never experienced it this strongly before. ( _five steps toward the window.)_ It was like a pulse in her mind. _Quil. Quil. I need Quil. Where is Quil. (five steps back to the bed.)_ She checked the clock to see that she had started pacing fifteen minutes ago in the hopes of calming down ( _she was at the window and spun around without looking out)_ but she just kept feeling worse and worse. ( _she reached the bed again and violently started shaking her arms out in front of her in hopes of releasing some tension_.) She was freaking out about Homecoming, ( _she kept shaking her arms as she walked back to the window.)_ and what Quil would think about it. ( _Back toward the bed_ _but suddenly she stopped halfway there in the middle of the room)_ _ **She just couldn't take it anymore!**_ She **HAD** to see him, no matter how upset she was.

Claire had never snuck out before, but her parents had been paying less and less attention to her lately and she figured that she could get away without drawing any notice, besides they weren't going to let her leave this late but there was no way she was going to be able to wait until the next morning to see Quil. She looked down the window at the small ledge and siding and realized that _SHE_ didn't have supernatural wolf abilities and that she would prefer to avoid breaking her leg.

She peaked out of her bedroom door. Jamie's door was closed. He had been zonked out for hours. She could hear her parents having some sort of intense conversation in low voices across the hall in their room and Rachel wasn't even home yet, probably still out with her emo-goth friends. She quietly slipped out of her room and shut the door behind her so that no one would notice she was gone. She snuck down the stairs before she realized that she had forgotten shoes in her insane hurry to get back to Quil as quickly as possible. She hurriedly looked around and spotted a pair of her ballet flats by the backdoor.

She put them on before quietly sneaking out the back door. She immediately pressed herself against the wall of the house to wait and see if her parents had noticed her closing the door. When she didn't hear anything for a few seconds she quickly dashed across the yard and then made her way out the side gate. She immediately started running.

She ran most of the three quarters mile to his place and made it in less than ten minutes. She just _needed_ to get back to her Quil as soon as she possibly could.

 **Quil:**

Quil had been trying to replace this carburetor for the last hour, and he hadn't made any progress on it. He usually would have finished it by now, but he was so distracted by Claire that he couldn't focus on any one specific thing…. Well except for her. That was the one thing his mind just kept coming back around to. He had only come down to the garage to try to take his mind off her. He should have gone to sleep an hour and a half ago.

He just couldn't figure out why she had avoided him today. He had tried to reason through in his head every possible explanation for why she wouldn't want to see him, but he just couldn't figure it out. He was really starting to freak out now. He had never gone without seeing Claire like this, he _NEEDED_ to see her, but _she_ didn't want to see _him_. That part at least was obvious even if he didn't know why.

He threw the socket wrench in his hand across to the other side of the garage in completely confused frustration. That was when he looked up to see her walking through the open garage door slightly out of breath. He knew that it was past her curfew and hadn't been expecting to see her until the next day.

"Hi!" he said anxiously as soon as he saw her in the darkness.

She didn't even stop, she just walked right up to him and fell into him, hugging him as tightly as she could. He was so relieved to be with her again he could have cried. Instead, he just took deep soothing breaths with the scent of her hair hitting him. He calmed down immensely with each breath of her familiar smell. She still hadn't said anything, but he could feel her shaking in his arms.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" he asked in his most soothing voice.

He pulled back slightly to look at her face while placing both of his hands on the sides of her arms.

"It's just….. I just… I… It's….." she stuttered out incoherently.

He could see a few silent tears slide down her face and she was shaking worse than ever.

"What honey? Did I do something? Is it me?" he asked concerned though relieved he was finally about to get answers for her avoidance of him.

" _NO!_ " she practically shrieked while vigorously shaking her head as if that idea was more upsetting to her.

"Okay, okay!" He said as he started rubbing up and down her arms. "Then what? Did something happen?"

She just nodded her head.

It a took a second for him to compute that. Something happened?! Something had happened to his Claire!? He immediately started shaking worse than she was. He had to close his eyes and focus on the feel of her in his hands to contain the wolf within him from exploding outward. He had had years of experience being a werewolf, over a decade but he didn't think he had ever had such a tough time not phasing before. But right now… right now he needed to gain some serious control and find out what had happened to Claire.

"Claire," He said in what had to be the sternest voice he had ever used with her. "I need you to tell me what happened to you."

She took a deep breath to steady herself and just barely above a whisper she began,

"That boy that asked me to be his partner on my history project. Bennett Callahan. He asked me to get together with him after school to get started on our project…."

"That was your study session after school?" he clarified while making a mental note to find out everything he could about Bennett Callahan.

She nodded and then continued "He asked me to be his partner on purpose. Today in the library… he …. He asked me…"

"He asked you to what, Claire!?" he asked intensely while starting to shake even harder as he really began to freak out.

"He asked me to the homecoming dance." She admitted in barely a whispered.

Well that brought him up short. He felt his body go still while he tried to process his complete shock. He had expected it to be something much, much worse. _That_ was what she was freaking out about!?

"That's it?!" he asked stunned.

She shook her head no in response to his question and he felt his hands start to quake again.

" _And_ I said yes." She barely squeaked and then covered her face with her hands like she was ashamed.

He knew that this must have been incredibly upsetting to Claire, but he just for the life of him couldn't see why. He had no idea why she was so upset by this, just that she was. He was just incredibly relieved that something hadn't _ACTUALLY_ happened to her. He was determined to try to figure this out though so, he began,

"So, this boy. Bennett Callahan...?" she nodded her head in confirmation "He asked you to the homecoming dance...?" more head nodding "…and you said yes...?" she still hadn't taken her hands off her face but kept nodding "…and that's why you were avoiding me?" she just stood there hiding her face in her hands but he took that as an answer in the affirmative.

"Claire, sweetheart, I'm sorry, I just don't understand." He told her honestly.

"You're not upset!?" she asked shocked.

"Upset!? Why would I be upset that you said you'd go to Homecoming with Bennett Callahan?" he asked more confused than ever.

" _Because_ you've been waiting for me! For _thirteen_ years! And I just agreed to go out on a date with another guy!" she said animatedly like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Waiting for you!? Why would you think I've been waiting for you?" he asked completely nonplussed.

"Because I'm your _imprint_ , Quil!" she all but shouted dramatically "Your soulmate! Your other half! The one you are _ALWAYS_ supposed to be with! The one who is supposed to give you lots of giant wolf babies!" she was really working herself up now. "That's why you all imprint _right_?! To find your _wives_! To find the one who will give you the best chance at strong wolf genes in your descendants!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Claire! Slow down!" he told her, shocked and desperate to get her to slow the marriage and baby train down. Way down. She was fif- fricking-teen. Why was she even thinking about any of this?

He hadn't even known that she knew any of this. Of course, he had heard all of the speculation about imprintation through the years, but he wasn't sure how much stock he put into any of it and he had always done his best (apparently unsuccessfully) to protect Claire from all of it.

"Claire, I have never thought _ANY_ of that. At all." He was definitely doing damage control trying to get her to backtrack.

"You haven't!?" she asked in a small somewhat disbelieving voice.

" _NO!"_ he assured her.

"You haven't been waiting for me?"

He sighed. This is why he hated when the wolves talked.

"Is that what you thought?" he asked her calmly. No wonder she was freaking out and thinking so far ahead. She just nodded in response.

"Claire, I imprinted on _YOU_ , not your future. I just need _you_ in my life. Always. That's it. I don't need your 'giant wolf babies' or anything else." He told her sincerely praying that she would understand and stop fixating on the decisions that were decades into her future.

She seemed to digest that for a minute as she looked up at him before she said,

"So, in the future…. you don't… plan on... being…...(she took a deep breath before continuing) _with_ me?"

"Claire, if you turn twenty-five and decide that you have to be with me, I will drop everything and drag you to the alter, until then… It's your choice. It's always your choice. And you should definitely go to the homecoming dance with Bennett Callahan, and you should _definitely_ not feel badly about it." He assured her confidently.

"Really?!"

she seemed so shocked.

"Yes really! I just have one condition."

"What?" she asked dubiously.

"Can I meet this 'Bennett Callahan' first?" he asked concerned.

She actually laughed at that and it felt like a healing balm on his soul. He took a good look at her for the first time and noticed that she was just wearing her flats with cotton pajama shorts, and the Seahawks hoodie, her hair falling in a loose mess down her back.

"Did you run here?" he asked a little shocked.

"Yeah" she admitted a little sheepishly with a shrug "I couldn't stand not seeing you anymore."

He just smiled. He was very familiar with that feeling.

"Come on, let's get you back to bed, honey. I'll take you home" he told her as he started to steer her towards his Camaro.

She surprised him when she suddenly clung to him and said in an almost whiney voice,

"Can't I just stay here tonight?"

She had stayed the night there with him before, but never without her parent's consent. Quil stood undecided for a second before he asked her,

"Is that what you want?"

"Yes. I want to stay with you."

"Of course, Claire, you can always stay with me." He answered without hesitation.

It wasn't even a question for him, if she wanted to stay there and be with him, then she could, and he would just figure the rest out later. He noticed how exhausted she looked. It seemed like she had been carrying an enormous burden, and she was finally free of it, except that it had taken all her strength to carry it and she looked like she might collapse as she leaned against him.

"You look tired." He commented while rubbing his hands up and down her arms.

"I _am_." She seemed to reply without thought.

"Okay then…!" He said quickly before bending down and scooping her up over his shoulder while pulling her legs out from under her.

"Quil!" she yelled between laughs, "I can walk! I lied! I'm not tired!"

"Nope! Too late now! You said you were tired!" he teased her as he bounced her violently farther down his back in his fireman's hold of her.

"I can walk!" She laughed but gave up and seemed to shlump down exhausted, folded in half over him while using her palms to try to pin the back of her pajama shorts down against the backs of her upper thighs.

They had had a moment three years ago, when Claire had said that she was _'so tired, I can't even walk!'_ Quil thought her whining was hilarious and teased her relentlessly, saying that he would willingly carry her if she was _'just too tired to make it on your feet.'_ She had taken his ribbing good-naturedly but after that moment it was a game between them where any time that he caught her saying she was tired, he would pick her up and carry her until they could find a place for her to ' _rest.'_ , she always tried not to say it so she wouldn't have to endure the embarrassment of being carried around in less than dignified positions, and he always tried to trip her up to get her to say it.

He quickly carried her up the stairs with her bumping along on his back the whole way up. He walked inside the door and carried her across to the opposite wall where he flipped forward and dumped her on the bed, so she landed on her back. He quickly turned around so that his back was to the bed and then let himself free-fall onto the mattress where she had to quickly dive to the side, so he wouldn't land on top of her.

He landed with a small huff before reaching out and grabbing her small hand in his own, it was freezing.

"You almost squished me." She said calmly, while blowing her hair out of her face and straightening back up to lay next to him, holding his hand and staring at the ceiling fan.

"You seem like you made it out alright." He lightly teased her before he looked down to the side at her and noted, "Your hand is freezing. You cold, Nino?"

She just shrugged nonchalantly without looking back at him.

He poked her side and said, "Huh? Huh?" with a mocking shrug and a poke for every 'huh'.

She laughed and then finally admitted, "Alright! I'm freezing! Quit bragging about never feeling cold!"

"Well get over here and take advantage of it!" he said while gesturing down towards his overheated chest and pulling her to him.

She gratefully rolled onto her side and snuggled into him while she curled into a ball. He was grateful for the chance to hold her after what felt like a long day apart as he wrapped his arms around her and warmed her small, balled-up frame. He was still in the gym shorts and t-shirt he had thrown on after the game, and he thought that Claire had fallen asleep in his arms as she quickly warmed up next to his always hot skin.

"Quil?" she whispered softly into his chest.

"Yeah?" he whispered back surprised she was still awake.

"I'm soo _sorry_!"

His heart hurt a little when her voice broke on the "sorry".

"Sweetheart, you have _NOTHING_ to be sorry for." He told her sincerely, hating that she was beating herself up.

"I lied to you… we said we'd never lie." She explained.

He wasn't sure exactly what she was referring to, but he knew whatever it was she had lied to him about didn't matter.

"It's okay Claire, just go to sleep. I'm here now." He assured her.

Quil held her close while rubbing his hand against the back of her head and down her hair and quickly kissed her forehead softly while she slowly fell into a deep sleep. Her slow, deep breathing was soothing to him and he would have liked to sleep then, but he was too upset with himself.

How long had she been feeling this way? Carrying this burden of his imprint. Feeling such a loyalty to him and their potential future together that she would have a minor breakdown because she agreed to go to a high school dance with an age appropriate boy. It wasn't right, and that was on him. How could he leave her feeling that way? Even if it was unintentional on his part it still wasn't okay. She didn't owe him _ANYTHING_ and he hated that she felt like she did.

He stayed awake holding her and musing on his mistakes for the next hour before finally crashing asleep while still holding her.

He woke up the next morning suddenly and was relieved to seeClaire still asleep next to him on the bed. Her phone, which must have fallen out of the pocket of her giant hoodie, was lying in between them. It gave the second ding indicating a missed text. He realized that the first ding must have been what woke him up. He picked it up and saw that it was 9:34 am and that the text was from Rachel. He opened her phone using her passcode and read.

I told mom and dad that you left early to go to breakfast with Quil. You OWE me. I know you snuck out last night.

He sighed as he realized that he should probably have taken her home the night before, but at least her parents hadn't noticed her absence. He noticed a bundle of clothes at the foot of the bed, he looked up at Claire and realized that she was just in her underwear and the tank top she had to have been wearing under her giant hoodie. He remembered that he had crashed while still holding her in his giant furnace of an embrace. She must have woken up overheated and shoved him off of her (knowing he wouldn't wake up) then stripped off any excess clothing before falling back to sleep.

Modesty had never been an issue in their relationship. A lack of clothing was just something you got over when you were a werewolf and had spent basically thirteen years exploding into a giant wolf at sometimes unexpected times and then ended up with no clothing when you managed to phase back to your human form. On Claire's part she had known Quil for so long that he had actually helped to potty-train her, he didn't think it was something that she ever even thought about. It just wasn't a big deal to either them, usually being partially unclothed in front of your best friend never is. They were never fully naked around each other but short of that, it was pretty much fair game. Quil was glad that Claire trusted him and felt comfortable enough with him to not care if he saw her that way, but he was used to it by know and didn't think anything of her current lack of clothing.

He looked up towards the window above his bed and noticed that it was raining again. They had had a surprisingly long stint of good weather there in the Olympic peninsula (especially for Fall) for the last two weeks, but it looked like that was over. He wondered if he should get up, but Claire was still sleeping, and he didn't want to disturb her. She obviously needed some good rest after last night. He decided to give her another half hour and then he would get up.

At ten o'clock he quietly got up, he wasn't touching Claire anywhere, so it wasn't too hard to get up without waking her up. She was doing the cutest little soft snore that she only did when she was completely zonked, and he didn't want to bother her. He quickly grabbed a clean pair of underwear and headed into the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later after a quick shower, and a shave (Claire hated when his face was prickly) he came out of the bathroom in just his boxer briefs while toweling off the water from his head and simultaneously brushing his teeth. He could hear from the bathroom with his enhanced wolf hearing that Claire was awake and checking her phone.

"Hey sweepywead." He garbled around his toothbrush.

She sat up. "Hey, I need to get going, Bennett just asked if we could work on our project today and I have to go home first. Do you think you could take me?" she asked him as he pulled on a pair of khaki dickies.

"Sure." He replied as he moved back to the bathroom. He spit and rinsed his mouth before he asked "Why do you need to go home first? I can just drop you off at the school and then I can meet this 'Bennett Callahan'."

"I need to change and get my backpack. Thanks though, that sounds like _tons of fun!_ " she finished sarcastically. She was crawling over the bed and reaching over the edge to grab her shorts that had fallen off when she quickly asked suspiciously, "What is that?"

"What?" asked Quil still in the bathroom.

Suddenly she shrieked and jumped up on the bed. "Quil! There's a _HUGE_ spider out here! And you need to come get it _RIGHT NOW!_ EW EW EWWW!" she shrieked while shacking her arms out and then holding her chest like she might fall apart.

Quil came out of the bathroom laughing at her reaction. Her first shriek had nearly given him a heart attack thinking that something was actually wrong, now he was laughing at her jumping around on the bed in her underwear too afraid to touch the floor and get her clothes.

"Where is this monster at?" he asked mockingly while grabbing a paper towel from beside the kitchen sink.

"I don't know, somewhere over there." She answered unfazed by his teasing. She was pointing at a general direction with about a 6-foot radius. "It was super-fast!"

"Wow this little guy must have some serious super powers." He teased her as he found it, about to make an escape under the couch. "Dang. You weren't kidding." He had to admit, as far as spiders go, it was decent sized. Larger than a nickel. He opted to smack it with his nearby shoe instead of squishing it. He picked up the now dead spider with the paper towel and said.

"It's okay, you can come down now, it's dead. The rain must have been why he snuck in."

"Okay, just make sure that you-" she started but he cut her off with,

"Flush it. I know." He finished for her.

He came back a second later after flushing the demon that had wreaked so much havoc. Claire had finally gotten off the bed and was gingerly picking up her shorts like she was afraid that the spider had a friend that was about to run out and charge her from under her shorts. Quil quickly threw on a clean T-shirt from the laundry basket on the floor as he laughed at her. She gave him a bit of her stink eye while she threw her hoodie back on and ran her hands through her hair.

"Are you done in the bathroom?" she asked him.

"Go for it." He told her as he headed into the kitchen in search of some food.

She came out a few minutes later, brushing her teeth with her finger and some of his toothpaste.

"Okay, we need to hurry. I didn't realize how late it is, and I told Bennett I'd meet him at the school library at 11." She told him while holding her finger out at an odd angle to keep the toothpaste from dripping before going back into the bathroom to rinse her mouth.

He stuffed a plain bagel in his mouth and held it between his teeth as he threw another one at Claire which she caught while walking out of the bathroom and then grabbed her shoes off the floor.

"Okay let's go!" he said following her out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

They had just pulled up to Claire's house and were sitting in Quil's Camaro when Claire asked,

"What should I tell my parents?"

Quil looked over to see she was looking down at herself in pajamas.

"Didn't you see Rachel's text?" he asked her confused.

"Yeah but…. when have I ever left the house in my pajamas…. without doing my makeup….or my hair…?" she pointed out.

"Just go with it. Blame PMS if you have to." He told her winking down at her.

This was the first time that she had ever snuck out. He knew that she felt guilty for deceiving her parents so much, and overly-worried that they would question her about it. Quil suspected that her parents currently had their own issues on their minds and he was hoping that just this one time they wouldn't pay attention to what Claire had been up to.

They walked inside to see Jamie working on a puzzle at the kitchen table with his mom, while Robert was watching a game in the family room. Rachel was nowhere to be seen but Quil could hear her annoyingly whiney music playing in her room and… he had to cock his head to be certain he heard it clearly…Rachel wasn't alone.

He had immediately sensed a tension in the room when they had walked in but suspected (and hoped) that Claire was so nervous from her own deception that she didn't notice.

"Hey Claire-Bear, we missed you at breakfast this morning." Robert said casually.

"Yeah sorry, I didn't realize that we had a family breakfast planned." She answered a little lamely. Quil was trying not to smile but he couldn't help it, he thought he could actually see her sweating. Oh, sweet little Makah Claire was just so innocent, deception did not come easily to her.

"Did you go to breakfast in your pajamas?" Susan asked her sounding surprised.

"Um yeah…." Claire answered hesitantly, her eyes became about as wide as Quil had ever seen them as she looked at him, silently beseeching him for help.

"She wanted to change before we left, but I was so hungry I just dragged her out as is." Quil responded easily. No one that had seen Quil eat before had any problem believing that.

Claire looked so relieved when her parents bought this story that he actually laughed at her reaction.

"So, what's Rachel up to?" he asked casually changing the subject.

"She's working on some homework upstairs." Robert answered

So, they didn't know about Rachel's hidden guest upstairs! Quil was so tempted to bust her to her parents, but she had just covered for Claire when she was at his place, so he figured he owed her this one.

"Well Claire, you had better hurry." He gently reminder her while looking at his watch.

She was so relieved her parents hadn't noticed her absence that she seemed to have forgotten why they were there. She gave a quick "Oh, yeah!" and then ran upstairs to get ready.

She came back down fully ready twenty-five minutes later. Quil had been enjoying the college football game with Robert but it was already 11:20 so he asked,

"Aren't you a little late?"

"I texted Bennett and asked to bump it to 11:30." She responded.

Quil noticed it seemed like she might have put a little extra effort into what she was wearing. He wanted her to feel free to be with whoever she wanted, especially at this age. She should be out dating and having fun instead of spending all her time with a guy who had turned thirty that year. But he knew if she cared enough to try harder to look good for a guy then he was definitely going to need to sniff this Bennett out.

He followed Claire back out to the Camaro. She was hurrying, and obviously didn't want to be late, he could also see that she seemed to have a little extra nervous energy.

It was raining, and she was bouncing around and covering her hair that she had straitened, and she was wearing a pair of dark and artfully ripped skinny jeans she almost never wore because they were so uncomfortable.

He opened her door for her and then walked around to the driver's side. He got in and pulled out, they went a few blocks in silence before he finally broke her silent reprieve,

"You doing okay, Nino?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered a little stoically

"You nervous?" he asked

She shrugged and then admitted, "A little."

Claire was mature for her age and always liked to seem put together and in control. Quil knew that he was the only one that she trusted enough to admit this to.

"Well, you look great!" He smiled at her, hoping to calm her nerves.

She smiled back and seemed a little relieved.

"So, you like this 'Bennett Callahan'?" he gently probed her.

"I don't know yet… Maybe… He's kind of cute, and he seems to like me, plus I like that he's not afraid to admit that he's interested in me. That's attractive, right?" she seemed to be sincerely asking him.

"I would think so." He answered honestly.

She blew out a nervous breath as he pulled into the student parking lot in front of the library. Unlike most high schools, Chief Paloma High (named after the last official Chief of the Makah Tribe) kept the student library opened on Saturdays for students to work in.

When Quil pulled the car into one of the many open parking spots instead of pulling up in front of the doors, Claire quickly responded suspiciously,

"Quil, what are you doing?"

"Um going into the library, obviously Claire." He teased her.

"And what are you going to do in a high school library?" she responded, teasing him back. The mild banter seemed to be calming her nerves a bit. Good. That had been Quil's goal.

"Why study, of course!" He said while pulling out his GED prep course book from the back seat with a flourish. "Let's go!" he said excitedly while opening the car door.

"Quil, NO!" she said while grabbing his arm and pulling him back with all her strength. She was laughing but had a firm hold on his arm.

"What?" he asked with a face of mock surprise

"Quil, really, you can't go in there. You know that, right?" she said growing serious.

"Why not...?" he asked matching her serious tone, he noticed he sounded slightly whiney. "I just want to meet him." He continued a little beseechingly

"You can't, Quil." She said slightly sympathetically

"Why not?"

Again, he noted he was getting a bit whiney. _I might need to work on that_ he quickly thought to himself.

"Because look at you." She said like an explanation, while gesturing towards him with her hand.

"What?" he asked looking at his khaki-dickies and gray t-shirt. How was this not appropriate attire to meet a teenaged boy in?

"Quil, you're 6'4 and about 600 pounds." She said

"600 POUNDS!? You think I weigh 600 pounds!?" he scoffed while laughing and reaching over to tickler her waist as punishment.

She squealed and laughed, before growing somber again and saying,

"I'm serious, Quil. You're too much for him to meet today."

"How does my size make me too much to meet him? I can't control my size, Claire." He said a little defensively.

She paused for a moment before asking him sincerely,

"Quil, what is your number one priority at all times?"

"Your safety." He responded almost automatically.

"And your number two priority?"

"For you to be happy." He answered like it was obvious.

"And I love you for it, but that's too much for a boy who has only committed to one dance and a history project." She explained kindly but firmly.

He knew she wasn't budging and after last night the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel like he was being over-intrusive in her love life. But he was definitely not happy about her spending time with someone he didn't know anything about. Seeing the conflicted and perturbed look on his face she quickly added,

"What if I promise to let you meet him before the dance!? Would that make you feel better?"

He thought about it for a second. He could live with that.

"Yeah, that would work for me." He told her with a sigh, he did after all want her to be happy with the arrangement too.

"'kay, I got to go. I'm late now." She said a little anxiously.

"Will you call me when you're done?" he asked probably too intensely.

"Yes. I promise." She answered just as intensely.

"Okay," he said while sighing out all his air in one breath.

"I love you. You know that, right?" she told him sweetly with a smile as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"I love you too." He said smiling back at her.

"'kay, I'll see you later." She promised and then reached over to quickly kiss his cheek before she got out of the car and ran through the rain into the door of the library without a backward glance.

He watched her go while feeling like she just took his heart with her. He sighed but put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking lot while thinking about how Claire always seemed to know exactly what he needed at any given moment. He didn't think it was because of the imprint, he actually thought he imprinted on her _because_ of it. He knew that the reminder that she loved him was the only thing that was going to keep him together through the next few hours while she was studying with one 'Bennett Callahan'.

Quil got a LOT of work done over the next few hours, working was all he could do to try to keep his mind off Claire. He also had a strange feeling that he wanted to be available for her as much as possible over the next week so getting ahead in work and freeing up some time seemed like a promising idea. He had been just about to start freaking out when he got a text from her at around 2:30.

Don't start freaking out. We're still working. Will ttyl. 3

He almost laughed, but he just couldn't. If he was being honest, he was only holding it together on the outside. On the inside he was completely freaking out. Claire was out of his reach. With a boy he didn't know anything about. And there was nothing he could do about it.

At about 4:33 she just casually strolled into the shop. He had been expecting to pick her and had been checking his phone about once every thirty seconds, so he was completely caught off guard when she just walked in.

"Claire!"

This time he was the one who didn't stop walking until he was holding her.

"Wow!" she said caught off guard as suddenly she was basically engulfed in his huge body. "Hi! Miss me much?" she laughed.

He just sighed, relieved to have her in his arms again.

"Wait! I thought I was going to pick you up? What are you doing here?" he asked almost accusingly.

"Well after we finished working Bennett took me to lunch at Bubba's." she said with a smile "He wanted to take me home but since we were so close, I just said goodbye to him there and came over." Bubba's was just down the street from Quil's shop.

"Oh, okay." He answered while having some mixed feelings about all of that.

"But I wanted to know if you wanted to go get dinner in a bit? I can't hang out tomorrow, I'm going dress shopping with Macy, I need to tell her that I'm going to Homecoming with Bennett."

"Sure, are you hungry now?" he replied easily.

He appreciated that she was making sure to squeeze time in for him in her busy schedule, but he honestly wished she had more time to spend with him. He actually wished he could spend every minute of every day with her, but he was trying to be reasonable.

"Naw, I just ate. Let's hang out for a bit first. Do you need to keep working? I can wait. Should I go upstairs?" she quickly answered.

He couldn't believe that after the afternoon she had just put him through she wanted to get out of his way now….

"Nope. I was only working to distract myself while you were gone." He told her. "What do you want to do?" he asked as he grabbed her hand and immediately felt a sense of relief at being able to feel her safe and within his reach.

"Um…. Well, have you studied yet?" she asked a little too innocently

He could feel his face fall drastically.

"I meant let's do something fun!" he responded.

"Quil, you _HAVE_ to study if you want to pass! Getting your GED is a big deal! Don't blow it off for some cute girl." She teased before laughing at her own joke in a self-deprecating kind of way.

"'Some cute girl' huh?" he scoffed teasing her back.

He immediately started tickling her stomach where he knew she was most ticklish. She started squealing and laughing and trying to twist away from him, but he caught her up by wrapping his long arm around her and then lifting her off the ground so that her torso was sticking out behind him and her legs and feet were kicking out in front of him. She sounded like she was almost dying with laughter and kept begging him to stop. He only tickled her harder for a moment before saying.

"Alright I'll stop, but only if you promise to not make me study. I'll study tomorrow, I promise. What else am I going to do all day without you anyways?"

"Alright, alright, you win! Just put me down!" she squealed with laughter.

He was just setting her back on her feet when they were interrupted,

"Hey there, Lovebirds!"

They looked around to find Leah walking through the open garage door.

"Leah!" Claire said excitedly and ran over to greet her with a hug. "I'm so sorry I missed you at the game last night!"

"Yeah, that was weird! What was with you last night? Why didn't you come say hi?" Leah being her usual obnoxious self, responded.

"Something came up." Quil responded quickly while shooting Leah a warning look, behind Claire's back.

"Okay…. well I just got off my best-aunt-ever duty and wanted to see if you guys wanted to hit Bubba's before my patrol tonight?" she responded letting it drop.

Seth Clearwater, Leah's younger brother, had imprinted on his wife Tara six years earlier and then immediately quit phasing. They, like Jared and Kim before them, had no drama getting together once the imprint had taken effect. They had gotten married as quickly as possible. The drama for them had come afterward. They had tried for almost five heartbreaking years to get pregnant and had finally managed to through IVF, the year before. Tara had struggled through her entire pregnancy on bedrest and then had fairly severe Post-Partum Depression that she still struggled with over eight months after their twins were born. Everyone tried to help when they could, all the wolves were a family after all, but Leah tried to watch the twins at least twice a week to help Tara have the baby-free time she desperately needed.

"Oh yes! Let's do it." Claire said immediately answering Leah's question.

"Claire, you _just_ ate at Bubba's and said you weren't hungry." Quil pointed out skeptically.

"Yeah, but _you're_ hungry." She said knowing that Quil was pretty much always hungry. "and I'll just get a shake. Please Quil, we haven't hung out with Leah in _forever_!"

"I hung out with her last night!" Quil immediately argued.

"Please, Quil." She said while turning her full gaze on him. "Please?" she asked with a smile. She knew he would always end up giving her whatever she wanted, especially if she unleashed her big doe eyes on him.

He just sighed in response and grabbed her hand before he started walking out toward the button that closed the garage door.

Claire just said "Yes!" and laughed victoriously like she had never won a dispute with Quil before, _she wins every time._ Quil thought to himself good- naturedly with an eye-roll. Claire used her free hand to grab one of Leah's and dragged her out with them.

The next day Claire did go dress shopping with Macy and was gone for pretty much the entire day. She didn't find a dress, but she seemed to feel good about the progress she made with Macy. Quil had gone back and spent the night at his place like usual, so the only time he saw her was for about twenty minutes in the afternoon before she had to run to an emergency cheer practice (whatever that was) and then he went back to his place to spend another night alone. On the plus side he did get some studying for his GED exam in. A lot of studying. He wanted to blow his brains out by the time he was done, but that was just about the time that Claire texted him to meet up with her.

The next week they seemed to fall into a strange pattern around Claire's busy schedule. She would go to school first thing in the morning, then immediately go to cheer practice which was an extra hour long this week due to their first competition on Friday. She would then spend the next hour with Bennett working on their project. Then _FINALLY_ she would come and see Quil, where they would have dinner together (usually with her family) and then she would work on her homework while he studied for the GED until about 9:30 or 10 when he would go back to his place to get some rest before another day of waiting around to see Claire.

Fortunately, he had patrol shifts on Monday, Wednesday and again on Thursday night. He didn't usually have so many shifts but this week he was grateful. The transformation into his wolf-self was a welcome escape from his human mind which always seemed to have a constant whining need for Claire. He just wasn't seeing enough of her each day and he knew it. As a wolf he could still think of her, but it came second to his instincts. And running, running was so much better as a wolf. He always felt like if he ran hard enough and fast enough he could escape his problems, but he could never outrun his need for Claire.

 _FINALLY,_ it was Friday and Quil was incredibly relieved. Claire's competition was today so she didn't have practice and she had promised to spend the evening with Quil to catch up on some of the time they had lost together during the week. He went to the competition, which took place at high school in Treeport with Claire's family. He was relieved that they all made it there to support her instead of just her dad with Jamie which was the usually turn out.

They were sitting in the stands about halfway up. It was towards the middle of the competition, but they were still waiting for Claire's squad, who were on deck, to compete, when Rachel suddenly said,

"Ooh, look, there's Claire new boyfriend."

"oooohhh!" Jamie immediately chimed, while Quil responded with a quick "Where!?"

He still had never met Bennett and didn't even know what he looked like.

"Over there, the kid in the poncho-looking hoodie they sell to the tourists." Rachel quickly pointed out.

He looked down at the kid that Rachel had pointed out. He was sitting with a group of guys Quil was fairly certain were on the football team and were sitting in some of the first rows of the bleachers. He looked normal enough to Quil, he couldn't see any signs of piercings or noticeable tattoos. (Not that he could complain if he did have any. Quil himself had the same tribal tattoo on his right shoulder and bicep that all the Wolves got when they first joined the pack, only his was fairly massive. Paul's tattoo came the closest in size to Quil's but was only about two thirds the size. Jamie had even taken to calling him 'Maui' for a week after he and Claire had watched _Moana_ with him. Claire had found it hilarious.) Bennett looked like he was in decent shape, but he was also sixteen and on the football team so that was expected. He had dark hair and was about 6 feet tall and maybe a buck eighty. Quil was pleased with his fairly non-threatening appearance. He was mostly interested in seeing how Claire interacted with him when the competition ended though.

When the competition was finally over they all made their way down the stands to the gym floor. Quil spotted Claire across the gym, taking a knee as she bent over her gym bag and dug through it. As if she could feel Quil's stare pulling at her, she looked up and immediately made eye contact with him. She smiled and winked up at him from about a hundred feet away. Then she got up and started talking to her teammates while hefting her large bag up on her shoulder. That was when the group of football players, including Bennett, made their way to them.

Quil watched as Bennett immediately made his way to Claire and said something that made her laugh. Normally Quil would be able to hear them from this distance but the gym was so crowded with cheerleaders and their families that he couldn't hear anything from them over the background noise. He did however see Bennett lift her gym bag off her shoulder and drop it back on the ground so that she would have to keep talking to him. Claire didn't seem the slightest bit upset by this but did laugh again at something he had said and then put her hand on his arm where he immediately moved his hand into the opening her lifted arm had exposed and start tickling her side.

Quil immediately had to stop himself from going over and breaking them up, and then breaking Bennett's hand. He had never seen Claire flirt with someone before, but he knew that he had no claim to her and had to let her live her life. He did not like seeing someone else tickling her though. At all. In fact, if Claire was going to start dating, he was going to have to pick up some hobbies, because watching it happen or sitting around thinking about it were not going to be an option if he wanted to stay mentally healthy.

Claire seemed to say goodbye to him at that point. She gave him a quick side hug, then picked up her gym bag again and starting walking over to her family a few feet away, she did turn and wave at him as she walked though and that didn't escape Quil's notice. Once Bennett's group seemed to be moving away with some of the other cheerleaders, Quil moved in to where her family was greeting her to finally claim some of Claire's attention. She was just making it to her dad who she hugged and then brightly said, "Hey!" as soon as she saw him.

"Hey! You were great!" Quil said to her as she gave him the same side hug she had given to her family.

"Thanks, Quil, and third isn't too bad huh? Especially for this early in the season, I still think we have a good chance!" she said optimistically.

Quil loved how passionate Claire was about cheerleading. It had brought out a whole new confident side to her that wasn't there before, and he had loved seeing as she embraced the competition instead of shying away in fear of failure.

"Hold on, let me say goodbye to my family and the squad and then we can go! Do you want to pick up a pizza? I'm starving!" She said before giving him a chance to respond to her first comment. She must have been hyped by the competition because she then ran off before he could even say anything.

Quil waited patiently as she said her goodbyes and he picked up her gym bag from where she had dropped it on the floor next to him. She was quick though and ran back up to him saying,

"Sorry! Okay, I'm ready. Let's go!"

Quil laughed and said, "Alright let's go get you some pizza." he reached down to grab her hand and lead her out toward the parking lot.

Claire immediately said "Quil!" and yanked her hand out of his, giving him a dark, significant look before folding her arms across her chest and looking away to see who might have noticed the exchange in the gym that was still fairly crowded with people making their way out.

Quil was stunned. She had never done something like that before. Never. He knew that from the outside pretty much _EVERYTHING_ about their relationship looked inappropriate. He looked about ten years older than her and in actuality was fifteen years older. They were always careful (after all he didn't want to get the cops called on him) but they had held hands before in various public settings and it had never bothered her before. But then again, she had never had a boyfriend before either.

"Sorry." He said too stunned to say anything else.

She was starting to look more upset the more he looked at her. That wasn't good.

"You want to get out of here?" he asked, "We can get your pizza." He added trying to make it sound enticing.

She just nodded without really looking at him. _Uh-oh_ he thought. That _definitely_ wasn't a good sign. She was quiet the entire time that they made their way out to the car in the crowded parking lot, but as soon as they got in she let him have it.

"QUIL! What the CRAP was _that_!?" she started almost yelling as she buckled her seatbelt and he pulled the car out.

"What?" he asked innocently and continued slightly defensively, "I hold your hand all the time, it was no big deal."

" _NO_. _No_ way!" She started obviously upset now. "That's not what _that_ was. _You_ were staking a claim."

"WHAT!?" he asked in complete disbelieve

"You were! You saw Bennett talking to me and then the first chance you got, you stuck your claim!"

"Claire, I swear that wasn't it!" he said insistently, after all he was just trying to lead her out, he hadn't been trying to stake a claim…. had he?

"I saw you! When I was talking to him, I saw you watching us, and then next thing I know it's like _someone call dateline, Quil is making a public move!_ " she said animatedly.

"Hey!" he said getting upset now, that seemed a little below the belt.

"What were you _THINKING_ Quil!? My principle was there! What if she had seen us!?" Claire insisted.

"I'm sorry, okay!? It was a mistake, I just wasn't thinking about it! Alright? I haven't seen you all week and I just wanted to feel your hand in my hand for a second. So, can we just drop it already!?" he replied angrily.

Quil almost NEVER snapped at her. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time they had fought about anything, at all.

She didn't seem happy, but she seemed to drop it as they pulled into the pizza parlor. Quil put the car in park and was about to turn the ignition off when Claire fired up again,

"You wait here. I'll grab something to go. You _obviously_ can't handle being in public right now!" she snapped as she got out and slammed the car door behind her.

She walked back out about ten minutes later with a pizza box in her hand and she looked angrier than ever. She got back in the car with him but didn't say anything. They drove the rest of the way to Quil's shop in complete silence. When they got there, Claire jumped out and marched in ahead of him like she owned the place. If it hadn't been so upsetting, Quil would have thought it was cute how she was marching around, still in her cheer uniform, glaring at a pizza like it had done something to her.

He was definitely starting to regret things now. It seemed that Claire was getting more upset with every passing minute. If he didn't reign things in soon he knew she would start crying. She always cried if she got too mad, and any time Claire cried it felt like each tear was a drop of blood cut from Quil's chest.

They quickly made their way inside the apartment and Claire started stomping around the kitchen, pulling down plates and banging them on the counter. She seemed to be trying to make as much noise as possible without actually speaking.

"Claire, I'm sorry, I was stupid-" he began hoping to repair things before she got even more upset, but she cut him off.

"YOU said! YOU said I could date! You said I _SHOULD_ date and then the second you even _SEE_ me with a guy who might…. who I might…"

She had started crying right in the middle of shouting at him, she had burst into tears like he knew that she would.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he said trying to get close to her and pull her to him, but she shoved him angrily away from her. "Claire! Hey, please don't cry. I'm sorry, honey. I really am. I shouldn't have done it, alright? It was stupid and maybe you're right... I was upset when I saw you flirting with him. Maybe I _was_ staking a claim. I'm sorry. And it won't happen again, I promise." He was practically begging her.

She had stopped crying but hadn't looked up at him yet, she did however, let him pull her into his chest.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again." He promised again.

"Okay." She said thickly.

"Okay? Okay as in you'll forgive me?" he asked cheerfully.

She just huffed against his chest.

"Come on, forgive me! Please, I'll let you pick out the movie to watch?" he said softly and enticingly.

She just nodded against his chest.

"Come on, say you'll forgive me..." He said teasingly as he started tickling her,

"…say you'll forgive me."

She was squirming and then he started tickling her harder while saying,

"Say you'll forgive me, I won't stop unless you say it."

She was laughing now and trying to escape his embrace. He just held her closer and tickled her even harder, saying,

"Say it! Say you'll forgive me!" while laughing now.

"Alright! I forgive you!" she caved.

"Good." He said as he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

Then he grabbed the entire pizza box and headed over to the couch where they could watch _Two Weeks Notice_ because he had promised that she could pick the movie.

 **Claire:**

Claire didn't wake up the next morning until 10:45. She was immediately glad that it was the weekend and that she would have a chance to catch her breath from her hectic week. She checked her phone to see that she had five texts already. Two from members of the squad letting her know their chances of making regionals after their competition last night. She had a text from Quil seeing if this Saturday morning she really did want to go to breakfast (a lot of time with Quil was spent eating.) and two messages from Bennett,

Good morning beautiful 😊 I woke up thinking about you this morning!

And then a second message that said,

When can I see you?

Claire smiled and her mind spun as she reviewed through in her mind the past week she had spent getting to know Bennett better. They were spending so much time together that they were making some substantial progress with their project. But Claire secretly thought she might actually be using the project as an excuse to spend time with him. She couldn't be sure, she had never experienced something like this before, but she thought she might be falling for him. And falling hard.

She loved the way he was so open with her. It was like he couldn't imagine having secrets from her, even though they had only known each other for a couple weeks. He always told her exactly what he seemed to be thinking and feeling. He had already confided in her some of his mixed feelings he had about his dad and his parents' divorce.

She smiled to herself remembering the moment on Thursday when they had been in the library and he had been telling her about how rationing during World War Two had actually set the stage for the marketing of some major companies like Heines ketchup, when he suddenly just went silent while looking at her. She had looked up from the computer she was typing on as he dictated to her and saw him staring at her.

"Everything alright?" She asked him confused.

"Yeah, everything is great." He said while smiling at her, he had then placed his hand on top of hers next to the keyboard, interlocked their fingers and tentatively given it a squeeze.

Quil had held her hand before of course, but she knew that that was different. She had never had a boy hold her hand like that. She had _really_ liked it. A lot. They had spent the rest of their time together with Bennett holding her right hand in his left and her laughing until her sides ached while he told her all about why his favorite color was purple and why it should be everyone else's too. He had some compelling points, she had to admit.

She then thought back to the cheer competition the night before. It had gone so well. She had been so stressed about her round off into a back handspring, but she had stuck it perfectly and her squad had scored well, setting themselves up nicely for final placing at the end of the season. And then to see so many people there to support her and her squad had really touched her. At least half of the football team had been there (Claire secretly thought that they should do a lot more to support cheer, seeing as all they do during football season is support the team) plus about a dozen of her friends from school (including Macy!), she had even seen at least three of her teachers and her principle plus some of the staff and her entire family. Claire had been shocked that Rachel had actually come to watch her compete, she never had before.

She had been so disappointed that the night had ended on such a sour note. She had never been so upset with Quil before. Ever. She would have thought that he would have been the one thing to make the night even better and instead he had almost ruined it for her. She was really excited to see Bennett there, and happy when he had singled her out afterwards. He had even flirted with her in front of all his teammates, she had definitively been curious to see if he would be the same towards her publicly as he was whenever they were alone in the library and he hadn't disappointed her.

She had of course seen Quil watching their exchange, but she knew that he respected her feelings too much to interrupt them. Bennett had been really sweet. He even complimented her specific parts of the routine, making her laugh when he didn't know the names of her stunts and would just say things like "I liked your back, twisty, flippy thing you did." while using his hands to demonstrate, instead.

He had even offered to carry her bag and walk out with her, but she told him no since she needed to get together with her family. He had been so cool about the whole thing and she had felt like everything had gone perfectly that. And then just as she was about to leave with Quil he had pulled his stunt.

She was mortified. What if someone had seen them holding hands there in the middle of the crowded gym? Claire couldn't believe that Quil would risk her reputation like that, not to mention what would happen to _his_ reputation if he was seen appearing to come on to a fifteen-year-old cheerleader in a high school gymnasium. The only motivation she could think of was that he _wasn't_ thinking, he was _reacting_.

There had already been a couple of incidents and Claire was eager to avoid anymore. The first had been when she was in seventh grade; Quil had walked her to school while holding her hand. When they got there, he had tickled her vigorously (she had been stressed about some mean girls in gym class and he was trying to lighten her up.) and then he had kissed her head before saying goodbye. It had all been normal for them but one of Claire's teachers had seen the exchange and been concerned about it. She had been pulled out of the middle of her first class to sit in a room alone with one of the counselors and someone from the school district where she had to answer a LOT of questions. She had to assure the entire staff that she had never been touched, spoken too, or even looked at inappropriately. Ever.

It had been humiliating. One of her classmates was a student-office-aid and overheard some of what was going on and told a few other kids about it. It had been awful. That night she had cried herself to sleep. Quil had had patrol that night so she hadn't seen him since that morning. By the time she saw him the next morning she did _NOT_ want to talk about it and after that she could just never bring herself to tell him about it. The last thing she wanted was to make him feel like some sort of pervert in their small town.

The second incident had been last year when Macy had noticed Quil at one of their competitions and had seen Claire interacting with him afterwards. She had asked Claire about it the next day. Fortunately, Claire had been able to put an end to that one quickly. She told Macy that Quil was her young uncle who she was really close with since they were only ten years apart getting the inspiration from Emily who she was close to and actually her aunt. Macy had (gratefully) accepted the story and let it drop. But now Claire was always hyper-aware of the impression she was giving off whenever she and Quil were in public together.

She knew that since Quil didn't actually know any of this he just probably wasn't as aware as she was of the consequences their public interactions had, but she still felt that it had been an incredibly stupid move on his part. She hated fighting with him though, and she knew that the strain of the week spent mostly apart hadn't helped.

Claire sighed thinking about it and decided it was time to get out of bed and she needed to make some decisions about who she wanted to spend time with today. She decided it would be best if she spent her time with Jamie. She felt that he was being the most neglected by her during the past few busy weeks. She texted Quil and told him as much but told him to come over for dinner. Then she texted Bennett and asked if they could get together the next day to work on their project. The Library would be closed but he could come over to her house and work on it there. She heard the ding and saw that Quil had responded,

Can't do dinner, my patrol starts at 6. You're busy ALL day? Can't I spend time with you WHILE you spend time with Jamie? I'll even take you two to a movie if you want.

He had even included a big lipped emoji that looked like a little beggy face. She knew that time away from her was always hard on Quil, he _needed_ to be with her after all. It was all part of the imprint magic. None of the wolves could be away from their imprints for any length of time without completely falling apart…physically, emotionally, even psychologically.

She sighed, her poor Quil. The past week had been harder on him than he had let on. She responded to his text,

Okay sounds good 😊 come over in half an hour so I can shower first.

Her phone dinged about halfway through her typing her response. It was Bennett responding to her invite to get together the next day,

Sure, that sounds amazing 😉. Will your family be there? I can't wait to meet them!

Claire smiled, she was a little shocked that he would want to meet her family so soon but pleased and impressed by his initiative and how much bolder he seemed than all the other boys around her age who really just wanted a relationship based on texting and getting as much action as they possibly could. She responded,

Yeah, they should all be here. They're excited to meet you too!

She put her phone down and ran to take a shower. She had stayed so late at Quil's place the night before that she had just crashed in her bed instead of showering first. Quil had wanted her to stay the night at his place again but she hadn't showered since the competition and she didn't want to share a bed with anyone until she had.

Fifteen minutes later she got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around herself and quickly brushed her teeth. She cracked the door open to check on Jamie's whereabouts and could hear him running around downstairs, so she opened the door fully and walked out in her towel to go get dressed in her room.

She had closed the door and was about to drop her towel when she turned around to see someone so large and dark it could only possibly be Quil waiting for her in her room.

"WA!" she shrieked completely shocked. "Quil, what are you doing in my room?!" she asked while placing a hand on her pounding heart.

"I was waiting for you." He responded like it was obvious.

He was sitting on her bed and he scooted over to the edge next to her and tried to wrap his arm around her waist, but she dodged around him.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, clearly not happy with her denying him contact with her.

"Um… I'm kind of naked here, Quil." She said while gesturing down towards her towel and wet hair with her hand not securely holding her towel in place under her arms.

"Oh." He responded looking confused and sounding unsure.

It was silent for a second before Claire gestured towards the door and said,

"Soo… can you give me a minute to get dressed?"

"Oh. Right. Yeah of course." He seemed dazed and flustered.

Claire shut the door behind him while shaking her head. _I swear sometimes it's like he still thinks I'm four years old._ She thought to herself. She quickly got dressed in her favorite lounging sweats (that's what she called last year's matching sweat pants from junior cheer squad) and an old white cotton t-shirt that seemed to somehow get looser and softer with time but unfortunately had three random slashes in the middle that you could see her midriff through, so she never wore it in public. She opened the door to head downstairs to join Quil and Jamie but she was surprised to see Quil right outside her door waiting for her.

"OH!" she said surprised again, she had almost walked right into him.

He just grabbed her and pulled her tight to him, getting his shirt wet from her hair in the process.

"Claire, I'm really sorry." He whispered to her sincerely.

"Hey!" she said softly, surprised and concerned by his reaction. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here now. It's okay." She said soothingly while rubbing his back up and down while he hugged her.

He took a deep breath while he held her close for a second and then released her while he said,

"Yeah, you are." He smiled and then said, "Now let's go find Jamie."


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Claire spent most of Saturday working on her homecoming dress at the kitchen table while joking and laughing with Quil and Jamie who were playing monopoly. Rachel had surprised everyone when she said that she wanted to play too and stayed through the first half hour before peacing out to her room.

Claire had started taking Home Ec. this year. She hadn't even known that they still taught that past the 80's but when creating her schedule with her counselor at the end of the last school year she had needed an elective credit filled and it was on the list as an option. She had really been surprised by how much she'd been enjoying it. The first half of the year would just be one big sewing lab. Ms. Geraldy the gruff fifty-five-year-old woman, with brutally short gray hair who taught the class said that Claire showed a lot of promise in her sewing abilities from just the few pillow cases and drapes that Claire had made so far. The good news was that Claire's bedroom looked like it had had a whole new makeover.

Last Sunday when Claire had gone dress shopping with Macy she hadn't been able to find anything she liked. Every dress just seemed so basic and high school-ish. She wanted to look formal and elegant, not like a cliché. While Macy was in the changing rooms trying on what seemed to be a million micro-dresses Claire had moved into a more casual section where she had found a top that she had died for. It immediately become her inspiration and she bought it. She took it to school with her the next day where she showed it to Major G. (that's what they called Ms. Geraldy behind her back because of her intense exterior) and told her her ideas. Major G. had loved them, which had really surprised Claire, and told her if she did it in class then she would get an A for the semester since time and effort were factored into the grade as well as finished product.

Claire was nervous that the project would be too much for her, but Major Geraldy had assured her that she would help her and that since they already had a top to be the bodice and just had to add the skirt to it she was confident that Claire could complete it before Homecoming in less than two weeks.

So, the next day Claire had her mom take the top to a fabric store in Port Angeles and match it to 4 yards of taffeta. Because Claire had bought the top on Sunday, taken it to Major. Geraldy on Monday, and her mom bought the material on Tuesday, Claire couldn't start working on it until Wednesday and even then, she only had about 45 minutes in class to work on it each day. She had made some decent progress in class over the last three days but decided to take it home to work on over the weekend. She was starting to feel some stress about finishing it seeing as the dance was just a week away now.

Claire smiled to herself as she remembered her conversation with Leah about Homecoming when they went to Bubba's the week before.

"So, what's new with you, Claire? I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks." Leah had asked her.

"Not much… cheerleading, school. I'm going to Homecoming in a couple weeks." She told her as they all sat around a booth together. Claire was sitting in the middle between Leah and Quil, she and Leah were sharing an order of chili fries while Quil ate an entire extra-large combo on his own.

"Homecoming?" She asked sounding a little shocked, "Like the dance?"

"Mmm-hmmm" Claire responded with her mouth full of Quil's chocolate shake.

She had decided to order a vanilla one which turned out to be major flavor disappointment. Claire knew that she was the one person in the entire world who Quil would actually share any of his food with. He took food very seriously, sometimes she took some of his just to tease him and get him to lighten up about it, but she also tried not to take advantage of his involuntary unconditional love for her. Well mostly…unless he had a chocolate shake and hers was a crappy vanilla.

"You're taking her to Homecoming?!" Leah asked while looking at Quil.

"I'm not taking her!" He responded sounding shocked himself at the idea.

"Then who are you going with?" She asked Claire confused.

"A boy from school." Claire answered simply.

Leah just looked back and forth between Claire and Quil before saying,

"Wait! You two aren't together yet!?"

Claire had just stared at Leah surprised. Didn't she share a mind with Quil? Didn't she know ALL the details of their relationship?

Quil was the first to respond,

"Leah! She's fifteen!"

He sounded shocked and angry.

"So, what!? Jake and Renesme got together when she was like four! And look at them now!" She responded

Claire was laughing now, while Quil said,

"That's different and you know it."

Seeing as Renesme was half-vampire and not actually completely human, it was indeed different. The only similarity being that Jacob had imprinted on her as a baby.

"Quil, what's your problem? Look at how hot Claire is now!" Leah responded while gesturing towards Claire next to her like she was a contestant in a pageant.

Claire was giggling knowing that Quil would _NOT_ like the direction of this conversation.

"So, what are you suggesting, Leah? That _I_ take her to Homecoming?" He asked her skeptically, leaning back against the bench in the blue vinyl booth while crossing his arms across his chest.

"No, I guess not." She admitted temporarily stumped before quickly saying, "But Claire, don't let him talk you out of anything with all of his "age" (she used air quotes around the word) talk, he'll say he's too much older than you but really he stopped aging when he was pretty close to your age now!"

"LEAH!" Quil exclaimed agitated.

Claire was still laughing at Leah and Quil's exchange but said,

"It's okay, Quil!" She put her hand inside of his under the table before he could become too upset. "I know she's just kidding."

But she winked at Leah where Quil couldn't see her as she turned back to face her, just to let her know that she knew she wasn't kidding.

They spent the rest of the time discussing homecoming details, Leah had even suggested that she come over to help Claire get ready for the dance. Quil did not seem like he loved that idea (probably afraid that while alone with Claire, Leah would suggest more ideas of them getting together ' _finally'_.) but Claire was so excited about the prospect that he didn't say anything against it.

Quil looked up at her from the monopoly game he was letting Jamie trash him at, and asked, "What's that smile for?" with a smile of his own.

"I was just thinking about Leah last week." She told him honestly.

His face looked concerned, "You know she was just kidding about….." he hesitated and looked down at Jamie before saying "…everything….. you didn't take her too seriously, did you?"

"No, of course not." She told him just to put his mind at ease.

"You sure? Cause I can drop an Alpha order to make sure she doesn't keep it up." He told her sincerely.

Quil was currently what they were referring to as "Default Alpha". Technically Jacob was the Alpha of the pack, but he and Renesme were currently raising their kids in France. Since Jake was too far away to communicate in their wolf minds he definitely couldn't lead the pack, that left Quil as first in seniority with Leah as second since all of the other wolves that had turned before them had quit phasing and left the pack. It was still Jacob's pack, but _someone_ had to lead it. Claire knew that Quil actually hated being the "default Alpha", he had never said anything to her, but he was just way too lighthearted to want the responsibility of the pack on his shoulders. He would gladly give it up if Jake would move back or even if Sam decided he missed the glory-vampire-fighting days.

"Oh no!" She told him sincerely, "It honestly wasn't a big deal."

He looked doubtful, so she continued, "Really Quil, if I wasn't okay with…. Everything… (she said the word in the same suggestive tone he had)… would I be going to homecoming with Bennett?"

Jamie immediately chimed in with,

"Bennett? Is that the one that's your new boyfriend?"

Claire felt slightly alarmed by this and looked at Quil who just shrugged his shoulders at her as if he had nothing to do with this.

"Where did you hear that, James?" She asked him kindly, using her favorite nickname for him.

"That's what Rachel said." He told her while rolling the dice, "And then dad said, 'only if Quil will allow it'."

Quil looked irked now and had a look on his face that said 'Seriously!?'

"Oh really!?" Claire said more than a little miffed now.

She always wanted Quil to be happy and always tried to make sure that she never did anything that made him unhappy or uncomfortable, but he certainly wasn't in charge of her, and she didn't appreciate the implications behind her dad's remark in front of Jamie.

"So, is he?" Asked Jamie undeterred.

"Is Quil in charge of me?" She asked while following her own train of thought, "No, definitely not." She said while giving Quil a significant look. He responded with a disbelieving look on his face and throwing his hands in the air defensively as if silently saying ' _Hey_ , _I didn't say it!'_.

"No. Is Bennett your new boyfriend?" Jamie asked sincerely.

"No honey, but he _is_ my date to the homecoming dance next week." She explained to him

"But what about Quil!?" He asked her obviously upset and confused.

"What about me, buddy?" Quil asked confused.

"I thought Claire was _your_ imprint?" He asked

"I am, Jamie." She told him.

"But I thought that meant you were his soulmate. That you two would be together forever. How can you go to homecoming with Bennett if you're supposed to be with Quil forever?" He asked

Claire was at a complete loss for words, and suddenly couldn't make eye contact with Quil anymore. Jamie had hit so close to home with his sincere question. Wasn't that exactly what she had been feeling all along? That she wasn't supposed to go to homecoming with Bennett if she was supposed to be with Quil forever.

"Come here, buddy." Quil said to Jamie in a serious voice as he pulled him around the table and onto his lap. Claire remembered all the times he had done the same thing to her as a child.

"Claire _IS_ my imprint. That's true. But what that means is that _I_ need _HER_ in my life. ALWAYS. But Claire still has to make her own decisions, and she _wants_ to go to Homecoming with Bennett, so she should." Quil explained sincerely to Jamie while making sure to catch Claire's eye. "Besides if she doesn't go to Homecoming, what is she going to do with this pretty dress she's working on?" he finished lightly.

Claire had received the message, and she smiled at Quil appreciatively while she wiped the tears from her eyes before they could fall and confuse Jamie even more.

Jamie just said, "OH! Okay!" as if Quil's explanation cleared everything up completely. "It's still my turn though, I rolled doubles!"

He was immediately back to the game, but from then on insisted he needed to play from his spot on Quil's leg.

Claire worked for a few more minutes in concentrated silence thinking of Quil's words to Jamie that had really been meant for her. Then she got up from her spot in front of her sewing machine and walked around the table to where Quil and Jamie were sitting together. She sat down on Quil's lap, on the leg that Jamie wasn't occupying, she wrapped both her arms around his neck and pulled herself to him in a close embrace before she whispered in his ear as sincerely as she could, "Thank you!". He just held her close for a second and when she pulled away from him she thought she caught a glimpse of what looked like unshed tears in his eyes, but he was looking away from her and she couldn't be sure.

Claire ended up explaining to Quil that Bennett was coming over the next day and was going to meet everyone, that night before he left for patrol. He wanted to be there as well, but Claire felt that after everything she had heard from Jamie that day that Quil should meet Bennett away from the eyes of her family. Quil seemed liked he agreed but like he didn't appreciate being the only member of her family that hadn't met him yet.

"What if you meet him at the game? That'll be a nice casual environment to meet him in!" Claire had responded

"The Homecoming Game?! On Friday?!" was his response obviously not liking the prospect of waiting almost a week after everyone else to meet him.

But she gave him her best doe eyes and he let it drop and agreed to wait until Friday if that was what she wanted.

The next day went _almost_ as smoothly as possible. Bennett had been charming as always. He had swept her parents up with his cuteness in making it obvious that he was enamored with Claire but was incredibly respectful of her. Claire suspected that her parents didn't know what to think about Bennett's place in her life. They had just always assumed that, due to Quil, Claire wouldn't have the typical high school experience of meeting and dating boys. He was cool and casual with Rachel but that was pretty much all you could ask of anyone when it came to Rachel. The one exception to the introductions going well had been Jamie. He just seemed to refuse to acknowledge Bennett's presence at all. No matter how much Bennett got on his level and tried to interact with him, he didn't seem to want to have anything to do with this stranger now involved in his sister's life. Claire wasn't sure if this attitude from him stemmed from a solidarity toward her or toward Quil.

She and Bennett had ended up in her room. They were supposed to be working on their project that was all but complete but they kept starting to work on it and then getting side tracked when Bennett would ask her something about herself (like her favorite type of brownie) or would interrupt in some other way, but he kept her laughing and eventually he said.

"I'm sorry Claire, I'm not a very good partner for you to work with on this, I get way too distracted by you to be very much help."

She smiled before she replied,

"That's alright if we don't get much done, I just like hanging out with you."

She wished that her voice could sound as confident as his did when he said stuff like that, but she had just been impressed with herself that she had managed to say it at all.

"Yeah?" he said sweetly yet confidently, "You like hanging out with me?"

He had grabbed the front part of her hair between his thumb and forefinger and pulled it behind her ear and then began twirling the end of it between his fingers,

"Yeah, I do." She said quietly while looking up at him.

He hadn't drop his hand yet and was still making eye contact with her when he suddenly started leaning towards her and closing the about eight-inch gape between them from where they were sitting on the floor together.

Claire felt her eyes widen ever so slightly, and she was stuck somewhere in the back of her mind frozen between not wanting him to stop (she desperately wanted to know if his lips were as soft as they looked), and not sure she wanted him to continue. Her breath had caught in the back of her throat and she didn't think she could remember how to breathe.

In the single moment before his lips met hers, the door that had up until that point been slightly ajar banged open against the wall. Jamie was in the doorway staring at the floor.

"Mom says dinner is ready." Then he turned and walked away as Claire called out "Okay! Thanks, Jamie!" getting louder the farther away he got.

She chuckled a little at the rude interruption and said, "Come on, let's go down before my dad comes up next to investigate our progress."

Bennett laughed and accepted her hand as help up off the floor, but he never let it go, even as they walked down the stairs in front of her family.

That night Claire tossed and turned around in her bed for hours trying to get to sleep. Her mind was so conflicted that she couldn't seem to get any rest. She would have liked Quil to have been there to hold her until she fell asleep, but she had determined before going to bed that night that if she was old enough and independent enough of her Quil to date Bennett, then she was old enough and independent enough to sleep alone. Not to mention that it seemed like now that Bennett was involved in her life, it just wasn't fair to him for her to be sleeping in Quil's arms. After all _she_ would not be happy if he was holding another girl every night.

Claire knew that Quil would not like it or see the necessity for the change. Because there was nothing sexual in nature about their relationship he didn't see anything inappropriate about holding her close every night. In fact, she knew that he would prefer it that way, always being able to feel her safe and close even as he slept. But she was just going to have to lay down the law and make it clear that she was just too old to maintain this habit that she should probably have put a stop to a couple years ago. She hadn't seen Quil at all today and it was already eating her up inside as her new resolve wanted to waver, but she told herself, _I'll just make sure that I see Quil for at least a little bit every day. That way I won't miss him so much when I'm sleeping alone._

As she lay awake, she kept going back and replaying her and Bennett's almost-kiss in her mind. She couldn't figure out why in that moment before he had been about to kiss her she had felt so conflicted. She really liked Bennett and she was certainly attracted to him, and Quil had already expressed the importance that she explore new aspects (including people) to her life. She replayed it over and over, focusing more and more on the way she had felt as he had leaned towards her. Somewhere around the twenty-seventh replay it hit her.

She couldn't let Bennett kiss her (even when she wanted him to!) because she had always imagined that _Quil_ would be her first kiss. She was suddenly devastated at the thought of letting that idea go. She reasoned with herself that a girl could do _MUCH_ worse than Bennett Callahan as their first kiss, but then her heart was just so pained. She had always assumed that _eventually_ her and Quil would be together, so she had never figured anyone else into the equation. Now she was less sure than ever about how her future would play out with Quil. She no longer had this naïve idea of her growing up and Quil falling madly in love with her and whisking her off her feet that she'd held on to since she was a little girl.

She logically knew that it could still happen, but with Quil, she would be lucky if he noticed her at all (as a woman) within the next ten years and she couldn't spend her life waiting for him…... or should she…...? She thought back to the moment when Bennett had been about to kiss her again and suddenly knew that she did not want to push the chance to be with him aside to live a (romantically) loveless life waiting for Quil. Bennett was here _now_. And he wanted to be with her and she liked him way too much to throw away the opportunity to be with him just so that she could have virgin-lips for Quil to potentially enjoy someday. _Just kiss him!_ She thought to herself but then immediately felt like crying.

Minus walking and talking, Quil had been there for _ALL_ her firsts, _every single one_. From her first day of school, to her first cheer competition. This was another one of her firsts that she wanted to share with him. She knew that it was standing in her way, but she was determined to fix it. The only problem was that she would need Quil's willing help to do it and she didn't imagine that he'd be very cooperative in this instance.

The next afternoon she broke the news to Quil that she would no longer be sharing her bed with him. They were in the car on the way home from cheerleading practice. Bennett had wanted to get together to finish their project, but she knew that if she wanted to keep this new resolve than she would need to tell Quil as soon as possible. That, and she knew that Bennett was going to try to kiss her again, and soon. And she was avoiding giving him any opportunity to until she could resolve the 'issue' that was standing in her way.

"But why, Claire? We've always slept together before now, what's changed?" was Quil's immediate confused response to the news.

She gave him a skeptical look.

"Quil." She started in her I'm-being-responsible voice "I'm way too old for it to be just chill for us to be sleeping together, even if sleeping is literally all we're doing. Come on you have _got_ to know that."

"I just don't understand. If it never bothered you before, why does it suddenly seem so inappropriate now?" he reasoned,

She knew he wasn't trying to argue so much as just understand.

"Well…. Maybe my age isn't the _only_ consideration…" she confessed.

"Well then what…" he asked before fading off. " _Bennett!?"_ he asked putting two and two together.

She just nodded as he looked over at her. He didn't say anything, he just pushed his lips together and looked back out the windshield.

"He wants me to meet his mom, and his grandparents…." She explained, "it seems like he really likes me and wants to do this right, and I owe him the same consideration."

He still didn't say anything, he just kept driving but he seemed to be driving slower than usual.

"Are you mad?" she asked him

"Nope." He said popping his 'P'.

"You're mad." She said with a sigh

"No, I'm not," he said "It's just…... a lot of change at once. I'm not used to having to share you. But if this is what you want than you _know_ I'm always going to go with it."

She just smiled and leaned forward to kiss his cheek before she said, "We'll get used to it soon and then it'll be easy, I promise! We already spend most of our nights apart anyways, it'll be no big deal!"

He had a look on his face like he seriously doubted that.

The rest of the week went quickly, with the exception of her nights where Claire suddenly understood that you don't miss something until you can't have it anymore, but she never caved and called Quil to come hold her. She finished her dress on Wednesday and was thrilled with the results. She and Bennett had finished their project and she still saw him at school so that freed up some time in her afternoons, and she was hoping to finally find alone time with Quil to enlist his help in her conflicted-about-Bennett's-kiss problem, but then they started doubling up on cheer practices before the Homecoming game half-time show, and she just never found her moment.

Before she knew it, it was Friday (the night of the game) and Claire had promised Quil that he would meet Bennett tonight since the dance was tomorrow and she was feeling more than a little nervous. _What if they don't get along?_ She kept asking herself and then feeling like she wanted to puke, but then she would remind herself that Quil would never do something that made her unhappy and that she had never seen Bennett not get along with anyone ever.

She was nervous the _ENTIRE_ game, every time she would look in the stands and see Quil with some of his wolf brothers (and sister) plus her family she would break into a cold sweat. The game flew by because of it. The half time show went perfectly, and she nailed her round-off-back-handspring. She immediately felt relieved as soon as it was over, but she quickly realized that that meant that she had nothing else to focus on during the second half of the game except this imminent introduction.

They won the game by a landslide and everyone was euphoric as the last whistle was blown. Claire was just trying to remember how to breathe correctly. She was still with her squad on the sidelines when she saw Quil coming to make good on her promise. He was holding one of Seth's twins in his arms and the baby was wrapped up adorably against the fall rain and chill with a beanie and a scarf in green and blue, her school colors. The sight was so adorable that Claire had to laugh out loud. As always as soon as Quil got to her she immediately felt fine all her nerves suddenly gone.

"Hey there, Blake!" she said while grabbing the babies little hand and rubbing it in her own to warm it up, "…or is it Kelly?" she asked Quil.

"Too be honest, I have no idea." Quil told her. "I just hold whatever Seth hands me."

"Well come here little guy!" she said taking him from Quil and snuggling his chubby body in her arms.

"So…..?" Quil said eagerly

"Um…. It looks like he's by the water table, come on, let's get this over with!" She said leading him over toward where she could see Bennett laughing with his teammates

Quil just followed her as she asked, "Is it okay that we're taking him away from his parents?" nodding toward Blake/Kelly in her arms

"Eh, I'll take him back right after this." Was his unworried response.

"Bennett!" Claire called out, getting his attention. He instantly looked up and smiled hugely as soon as he saw her, "Come here, I want you to meet someone."

"Hey there, who's this little guy?" he asked while walking up to her and mostly speaking to the baby.

"We're not exactly sure," Claire laughed "But this isn't who I want you to meet." She said while thinking it was adorably cute that he thought she meant the baby.

She turned toward Quil and said, "Bennett, this is my Quil."

She hadn't meant to say the 'my' part. It had just slipped out and she was worried about how Bennett would take it. Quil looked like he had noticed it and seemed a little too pleased about it for Claire's liking.

"Hey there! Bennett Callahan." He introduced himself while extending his hand toward Quil. It seemed like he hadn't noticed anything amiss Claire noted with relief.

"Nice to finally meet you." said Quil taking his hand. Claire just prayed that he wouldn't squeeze it, she knew he could crush his hand if he wanted to.

"Quil, huh? That's an interesting name." Bennett said in a warm and friendly tone.

Claire could just see the thoughts going through Quil's head, and they went something like ' _Says the boy with the whitest name I've ever heard'._

"What can I say? I've had it my whole life." Was Quil's slightly sarcastic response.

"He's named after his grandfather," Claire chimed in helpfully, "And because he's Quileute."

"Wow, way cool." Bennett replied enthusiastically, "Quil…? Quil….?" He seemed to be thinking out loud. "Oh! You're the one Macy mentioned the other day! You're Claire's uncle?" Bennett inquired while absentmindedly putting his hand on Claire's arm.

Quil just gave Claire a look that she couldn't quite read, probably because she had looked down at the ground while clamping down on her bottom lip with her teeth, embarrassed that this was coming back to bite her.

"Something like that." Said Quil quietly.

Bennett looked confused until Claire clarified, "Quil is an old friend."

"Oh okay, and is this little guy yours?" Bennett asked while nodding towards the baby with his head.

"No, I'm just his _uncle_." Was Quil's immediate response.

 _Smart alec._ Was all Claire could think towards him. He surprised her by suddenly leaned towards her and pulling the baby out of her arms,

"But I had actually better get him back to his parents, it was nice to meet you, Bennett!" Quil said in a friendly voice surprising Claire with the brevity of the introduction. Quil hadn't even asked him what kind of car he drove or made any sort of reference to Bennett's performance during the game.

"You too, Quil!" Said Bennett unaware of anything unusual in the introduction before turning to Claire "Hey, I wanted to see if you want to go out and celebrate the game!" he said excitedly.

"Oh thanks, but I can't, I need to go with Quil and the baby and see some people." She had suddenly seen her moment for solving her problem. "I'll see you tomorrow though, yeah?"

"Yeah, of course! I can't wait." He told her sincerely.

She quickly reached up and gave him the briefest kiss on the cheek before she said, "See you!" and ran off after Quil a couple feet away.

Neither of them said anything for a couple seconds, they just walked towards the stands in uncomfortable silence until Claire trying to break the tension said suggestively,

"So…?"

"Your uncle!?" he asked scathingly like he couldn't believe it.

"I never told him that." She said grabbing the whining baby that was reaching towards her out of his arms.

"But you told Macy that?" he seemed upset, like he thought she was ashamed of their real relationship.

She just shrugged and didn't meet his eye.

"Why would you tell her that?" he asked confused.

"I had to tell her something. That seemed to make the most sense. Besides it was almost a year ago, I didn't think she would be telling people that _now_." She responded honestly.

"Why did you have to tell her anything!? How is our relationship with each other anyone else's business?"

"Because, she thought that you might be potentially molesting me!" She accidentally blurted out, agitated by the conversation. She had never meant to tell him that, she had just been so desperate for him to understand she wasn't ashamed of their relationship that she had spoken without thinking.

He stopped walking. Claire held her breath as she stopped and turned back around to face him, waiting for his reaction.

He was only frozen for a moment before he said,

"When did this get so complicated?" he asked gesturing between the two of them. "Isn't imprinting supposed to make everything simple?"

"Beats me." was Claire's only answer with a shrug, "Now come on we need to find Seth and get this little guy back." She said calmly.

She thought Quil might have (almost) gone to grab her hand but then stopped himself. She put her hand on his arm and rubbed it comfortingly.

"You want to hang out tonight? Just the two of us?" She asked.

"I really would." He said like he the had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

An hour later and they were just pulling up to the garage (it had taken awhile to track down Seth and Tara and pass back the baby who turned out to be Kelly).

"Hey, Quil?" Claire began,

"Yeah?" He sighed. He had been less than exuberant since the introduction with Bennett.

"Would you do me a favor?" Claire asked quietly.

"What?" He seemed wary.

"Would you teach me how to drive?"

"What!?" He seemed completely caught off guard.

"Will you teach me to drive?" She repeated patiently, "In the Camaro!" She added as an excited afterthought.

"Haven't you had enough life-altering change lately?" He questioned.

"Life-altering? What sort of change in my life has been life-altering?" She responded, "I swear, I go on one date with a guy, and it's like I'm going to space for the next five years or something." She was speaking mostly to herself but knowing that Quil would hear.

"You don't know how things will affect your life, Claire." He told her warningly.

"I know that. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't live it." She responded. She was starting to get defensive now.

He merely shrugged his shoulders before getting out of the car and walking in the rain up to the garage. Claire just sat there a little stunned for a second. She quickly opened the car door and stepped out to call,

"Are you upset because I'm going to Homecoming with Bennett!?" She knew logically she didn't need to call as loudly to him as she would for a normal person, but he had walked away from her and was about ten feet from her unlocking the side door to the garage, and it was dark and cold, so the situation seemed to call for that level of volume.

"You know what? You're too young to learn to drive." He said decisively in response, barely looking back at her.

He opened the door and walked inside the garage, leaving the door opened for her to follow. She had never seen Quil just walk away from her before. He always seemed to wait for her. He either held her hand and led her into a room or waited for her to go first and then followed.

"Hey! Wait up!" She called getting agitated.

She hit the lock button on the inside of the car door since it seemed like he had completely forgotten about it and slammed the door before hurrying the ten feet inside the garage. It had started raining pretty hard and she was getting soaked in her uniform.

"I'm turning sixteen next month, Quil." She replied to him when she caught up with him inside the garage sitting on the stairs waiting for her.

They didn't usually have conversations like this in the garage. After all Claire tried to be discreet and keep their relationship away from wandering eyes, but the only door that was open was the side door, and with the rain coming down so hard you could barely see out of it and she knew they wouldn't be overheard above the rain. It was still dark in the shop, the only light coming in from the window above the garage door that had the outside security light above it, so she couldn't really see his face, but she knew that he could see her.

"And you think that makes you old enough to drive?" He asked her accusingly.

"Um.. yeah.." She answered confused by his question.

"Well okay then, I guess you're old enough to do what you want then." He responded without moving.

"What is _THAT_ supposed to mean?!" She immediately asked.

"Nothing, Claire." He said getting up and starting up the stairs to his apartment.

"Hey! Quit walking away from me! If you want to say something to me, just say it." She all but yelled up at him.

She couldn't believe she was having her second fight with him in a week! Man, they were really off their game lately.

"I don't have anything to say, Claire." He responded a little lifelessly as he kept going up the stairs.

She was shocked at how he was shutting her out. Clearly, he was really upset by this, but she didn't understand why he wasn't communicating with her.

She followed him up the stairs and into the apartment and shut the door behind her with a snap before she said,

"You want me to wait for you!? Is that it!? Would you like me to stick myself in a time capsule, and pop back out in ten years!? huh? Would that make you happy!?"

She was standing by the door staring at him, but he was in the kitchen with his hands on the edge of the sink leaning against the counter. She could see all the tension straining in his back and shoulders.

"Claire, stop." He said in a quiet voice.

"Maybe we could find a nice convent, where the nuns are really nice and could keep a close eye on me so that you don't have to! Or oh I know! Maybe an all-girls Swedish boarding school would keep me until I turn twenty-one!" she continued.

"Claire, STOP!" He yelled while finally turning around to face her, "Do you think this is easy for me!? Do think it's easy for me to see you flirt with him!? To see _EVERYONE_ we know, _including_ your parents, act like I own you!? Like I'm some sort of misogynistic, perverted pig, who has claimed his teenaged bride!" He had gestured toward her with his hand as he spoke, "I don't want you to set your life aside for me, Claire, I don't! But that doesn't make it fun for me when you go off and live it without me while you push me farther and farther away." He finished with a huff

Claire just stood there in shock absorbing everything for a moment. There were a million things she could say to make him feel better. Things about how she never saw him that way as claiming her, or that she could never live her life without him, or that she knew this was hard for him but that she would always need him in her life.

But there also might be something that she could _do_ to make him feel better. She made up her mind when she looked up at him. She had already decided that she needed to do this anyways so now seemed like an oddly appropriate time. She would solve her problem and console Quil at the same time.

Using the heat of the moment as momentum she closed the ten-foot gap between them while never breaking eye contact, she seemed to just pull herself to him with mere will in a matter of seconds. As soon as she reached him, she stood up on her toes, grabbed his face in her hands and put her lips to his in one swift move.

He seemed to instantly respond to her kiss by closing his arms around her for just a moment before he immediately pulled back and away from her, stepping into the counter behind him.

"Claire!" He said in disbelief.

She just stood there unapologetically, too shocked to say anything. She didn't know what she had expected when she had decided to kiss him, but it wasn't that. The kiss had been so small and short but so intense for her. The moment her lips had met his she knew she had never felt something so right. Kissing Quil felt just like everything else she did with him, it felt comforting and intentional, like she was _supposed_ to kiss him.

"What the hell!?" He said after a second, he paused for another moment and then said, "That's not why I brought you up here!" as he slammed his hands down on the edge of the countertop behind him. He seemed more upset than ever, she suspected it had a lot to do with her telling him that Macy had been concerned that he might be trying to take advantage of her sexually. "Besides I thought you were _with_ Bennettnow!" He seemed flustered by her sudden attack

"I am." She responded weakly, suddenly feeling a little light headed.

"Then why, Claire!? Why would you kiss me!?" He seemed desperate to know.

"Because I wanted…. I just want…" she tried to explain weakly as she sat down in a chair next to the small table. She felt like that kiss had been this vast experience that she hadn't been prepared for and it seemed to have taken a lot out of her.

He sighed when he looked at her weakly sitting at the table, flustered but unapologetic. "What did you want, sweetheart?" He finally asked her softly.

She continued to stare at the floor for a second before she looked up at him.

"I just always thought that _you'd_ be my first kiss. I _wanted_ you to be." She explained.

She thought he seemed confused for a moment but then he said, "Okay. Well can't I be your first kiss in like three years or something when it's a little less gross for a guy my age to be kissing you?"

She laughed as she scoffed at him, "Quil! Are you seriously telling me that _you_ waiteduntil you were, _nineteen_ , to kiss a girl?" She asked skeptically. His face made it clear that that had _not_ been the case. She knew that he had been 17 when he had imprinted on her and that he hadn't been with a girl since.

"No, I didn't think so." She laughed, she grew serious after a moment and said, "He tried to kiss me already."

Quil looked concerned and came and sat down kitty corner to her at the table.

"No, it's fine. I wanted him too and all. It's just…...when he started leaning towards me... I…. just couldn't." She confided "It took me forever to figure out what my hang up was. And then I realized it was _you_." Quil looked like he needed a second to digest all of that. "I had just always assumed that _you_ would be my _first_ kiss, and I was kind of devastated when it wasn't going to be." She finished unembarrassed.

It was silent for a moment and then Quil said, "So…. You want to kiss me… so that you can kiss Bennett?"

Claire laughed at his summary, "Something like that, yeah." She said and smiled at him.

Not breaking the eye contact he had been keeping with her, he said.

"Alright."

"Alright?" She asked confused.

"Alright. I'll be your first kiss." He explained, "But you'll have to kiss me. I'm way too old to still be putting my moves on the high school girls."

She laughed, "Really?" She asked, shocked that he would go along with this.

"Yeah." He said good-naturedly, before continuing in a serious voice, "But just this one time! This _CAN'T_ be a regular thing." He warned her.

"Okay." She said softly while agreeing to his terms.

They just sat there staring at each other for a moment. They were less than a foot apart, facing each other across the corner of the table.

"Close your eyes." She commanded him softly. He obeyed.

She really hadn't thought this through. She had obviously never kissed anyone before and she didn't know what she was doing. _I should have looked up tutorials online or something._ She thought to herself. She blew out a breath and then placed her hand softly against his cheek, figuring that to be a good place to start. The second she touched his face all her nerves left her, and she was fine, even confident. Nothing in the world would ever make as much sense as her kissing Quil, it was what she had always been meant to do.

Once she placed her hand on his face he let out a soft sigh through his nose before bringing his hand to hers, wrapping it around her small wrist and hand. He used it to cradle her hand against his cheek with his eyes still closed. He gently pulled her hand down to his lips and kissed her palm before pulling it back up to his cheek. She smiled at him even though he couldn't see her. She might be at peace, but _he_ seemed like he might be a little nervous.

And then she just leaned forward and met his lips with hers without any second thought or hesitation. She let herself enjoy the feel of him, with his hand against hers holding it to his face, and his comfortably soft lips meeting hers for just a moment and then she pulled back with a small sigh.

She had had her first kiss (well her two first kisses) with Quil, and for the moment she was completely satisfied.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

 **Quil:**

Quil woke up the next morning with a smile on his face. He kept replaying the night before in his mind. He just felt so overwhelmingly relieved that he and Claire seemed to be back on the same page after the last few tumultuous weeks. He had been secretly pleased to hear that Claire hadn't kissed Bennett yet and even more pleased to learn how important it was to her that _HE_ be her first kiss. If he hadn't liked the idea so much he never would have agreed to letting her kiss him. But it was the idea of him finding a way for him to claim her that was so appealing to him. It wasn't that he wanted to claim her as his property or anything, but by leaving a mark on her that would always show he had been there. No matter what else happened from here to eternity he would always be the one who had been Claire's first kiss. He knew it and more importantly _she_ would always know it even if no else ever did.

That kiss. He just couldn't get over it. He knew it had been a _LONG_ time since he had kissed anyone, but he also knew he wasn't _that_ rusty as to not be able to recognize the unique specialness of it. Whatever he had been expecting, that wasn't it.

The first time she had kissed him, he had seen it coming. He knew from the look on her face as she walked toward him what she was going to do. When she actually touched him though, it felt like he had been glued to her. Like every place that his skin touched hers had melted to her.

When her lips had pressed hard and fast against his, he had immediately responded to her. He wrapped his arms around her and had been about to pull her closer and return the kiss, but then his brain had caught up with what was happening, and he realized what a _BAD_ idea it was to kiss a fifteen-year-old Claire.

He knew that his pack wouldn't think anything of it. She _was_ his imprint after all. In the wolf mind she _was_ his to claim, even if she was only fifteen. He had first phased at seventeen so some of the wolves' mindset was that he had been frozen at that age. But he knew that physically his body was NOT seventeen and he had already been left feeling like a giant creep after finding out one of Claire's friends had been concerned about her safety around him. Kissing on her was not going to help that situation and if anything would only prove the accusation correct.

But then Claire explained what she wanted, and he just couldn't help himself. It was always his first instinct to give Claire what she wanted, but this went beyond even that. _He_ wanted that. He _wanted_ to be her first kiss. And so, ignoring the smaller part of his brain that said this might be a _terrible_ idea, he agreed.

He had not been prepared for what had happened that second time she kissed him. The second her soft, supple lips met his, his brain completely shut off. The imprintation had completely taken over. He hadn't had a sensation like that since the very first time he had seen Claire, when he had physically imprinted upon her, his whole world had shifted and there she was, her little two-year-old self, the center of his world.

He just _KNEW_ in that momentwhen she kissed him, that he had been wrong. He could never JUST have Claire in his life. Just being around her was all that he had asked of life for almost fourteen years and now suddenly it felt like it just wasn't enough. He needed more. He needed her to one day be with him. He needed to know that one day she would love him, that one day she would kiss him again. That she would kiss him every day for the rest of his life. He had just promised her weeks before that he would never need more than he had, that he would never ask her for more than that, and now suddenly he knew he couldn't keep that promise. He had finally realized it, that he might need more than the loving platonic relationship they had always shared, and it terrified him.

He wasn't sure if this realization would have eventually dawned on him on its own or if he would have stayed ignorant forever, but that kiss had pulled it to his mind violently. He had been about to pull her into his arms and onto his lap while his lips had been about to part hers as _he_ deepened the kiss that she had begun, when she had pulled back.

He was still confused by his reaction to her. Was it purely physical? But he had never been attracted to her before that moment. He had never wanted the feel of her sweet, soft lips against his while her fingers tangled in his hair….Or was it still the imprintation telling him that they belonged together? Whatever it was, he knew he couldn't _keep_ kissing her to find out, no matter how much he may have wanted to. His mind was torn though, in a constant feud between, _What does this mean?_ and _It's NOT okay to mess with Claire_ ….. _But I NEED her._ and _she's fifteen!_

They had spent the rest of the evening watching _FRIENDS_ reruns until he had taken her home. She had seemed happy and content. He felt like he couldn't clear his head the whole time. She sat there snuggled next to him holding his hand like everything was exactly the same as it had been before she had kissed him.

Lying in bed his head was still spinning in circles. He knew that she had been right all along. Claire had always viewed them as a _when_ , he had always seen them as an _if_ or perhaps a _maybe one day_. Eventually, he concluded that he would need to be with Claire one day but _today_ was not that day. She wasn't ready, not to mention _WAY_ too young. He decided that he needed to take a step back, he would go back to what they had been just a few weeks ago, sans sleeping together, even _he_ could now see how that just wouldn't work for them anymore. She needed time to grow and part of that was her needing to date. He hated to admit it, but he couldn't stand in the way of her being with Bennett. If that's what she needed than he would give that to her.

He looked at the clock and then jumped in the shower, Leah was going to be over at Claire's house in two hours to help her get ready and he wanted to be able to spend time with her before then.

About twenty minutes later he was letting himself into Claire's house. Jamie looked up from his Legos when he heard him come in, "Quil!" he yelled running up to him before attacking his legs. _Wow_ , _I don't think he has ever been this excited to see me_ he thought to himself.

"Hey, big guy!" he said before he lifted him in the air like a rocket. As soon as he set him back down Jamie grew serious.

"What's wrong, buddy?" Quil asked concerned.

He just gestured to Quil with his hand to come down to his level. Quil squatted down as far as he could, and Jamie said quietly, "Claire is going to Homecoming tonight."

"I know buddy, remember when we helped her with her dress?" he responded mystified.

"…with Bennett." Jamie said it as if Quil wasn't getting it.

"I know." Quil said still confused.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Jamie asked him expectantly.

"Nothing." Quil responded confidently.

"What?! You're just giving her up!" he seemed disgusted with Quil.

"Why do you want me to do something about it?" Quil asked him.

"Because I don't _want_ Claire to be with Bennett. I want her to be with you." He said simply and with a little bit of a whine.

"Well…. Claire can't be with me right now, so do you think it would be okay, if just for now, she was with Bennett for a little bit?" Quil asked Jamie.

"Why can't she be with you right now?" he asked sincerely.

"…. Because I'm a grown up, and Claire isn't yet." he answered as best he could.

"But when she grows up she can be with you?" Jamie asked in return.

 _I should be so lucky._ Quil thought to himself.

"Yes! If that's what she wants, she can definitely be with me."

"And you'll stay here and wait until she's a grown up?" Jamie asked suspiciously.

"Yes..." Quil answered, confused by Jamie's sudden intense interest in this.

"Alright, then I guess it's okay if she's with Bennett…. but just for now!" he reasoned.

Quil blew a sigh of relieve as Susan walked up, she must have heard at least part of the conversation because she said,

"Thanks, Quil. I have been trying to explain it to him all morning. Hopefully that satisfied him."

"I did my best." Was his answer as Claire came down the stairs wearing a silky cream robe closed loosely over a white tank top and a pair of blue running shorts that said _CPHS Cheer_ vertically up the side.

Her hair was in two loose messy braids and she had some sort of stiff, green mud mask on her face but somehow her face still seemed to beam as she saw him.

"Quil!" she exclaimed.

"Hey, Nino. Bennett's not going to know what hit him when he sees this look on you!" Quil teased her.

"Very funny." She rolled her eyes at him and then said, "Mom, I can't find a nail polish that goes with my dress. Do you have anything?"

"I'm not sure, Honey, check in my bathroom!" Susan replied.

"'Kay, thanks! Quil? Want to help me with my toes?" she asked him with an enticing smile.

This was something that she had suckered him into as a child that she still always managed to get him to do for her just by giving him her doe eyes. He sighed resigned to his fate and threw his hands up.

"I'm at your service." He said.

"Great! I just need to wash this mask off…. It's starting to hurt, and I don't think it's supposed to do that." She said concerned, before running up the stairs and into the bathroom.

Quil was relieved with how normal she was still acting around him. He had been nervous that their kiss truly had the power to destroy their harmonious relationship and that she would be too young to handle something like that. She seemed to be handling it fine though.

He was headed upstairs to her room when he heard Rachel go into the bathroom that Claire was washing her face in and say, "Here. You can use this. To go with your dress. If you want." And then walk away. "Thanks Rachel!" Claire said, clearly touched by the gesture but Rachel was already gone.

Ten minutes later, a clean faced Claire came into her room where he was waiting and said, "Here use this! Isn't it perfect!?" as she handed him a bottle of fingernail polish and then jumped into a comfortable position on her bed.

"Black?" Quil asked doubtfully as he shook the bottle and untwisted the cap.

"It's chic, I promise!" She said sincerely while winking at him.

"If you say so." He told her doubtfully as he stuffed some cotton balls between her toes. She instantly started giggling and squirming.

He laughed and gave her foot a little extra tickle before she reflex-kicked him in the chest where he was leaning over her.

"Oops! Quil, I'm so sorry! Are you okay!? You just caught me off guard! I didn't mean to." She was borderline frantic.

He thought it was adorable that she thought her little kick could actually hurt him, he felt as though Jamie had tried to punch him.

"Claire, relax." He said as he slapped his chest "Wolf-boy remember?"

"That didn't hurt?" she asked surprised.

"Of course not, Nino." He scoffed.

"I wish you wouldn't call me that." She said earnestly.

"What? Nino?" he asked her surprised.

"Yes Nino!" She said while pretending to kick him again before he started painting her toes.

"Why not?" he asked her mystified. He had been calling her that for so long he couldn't even remember a time with her before he called her that.

"Because, I'm not a child. And I'm not a boy." She answered lightly.

"Oh, I know… I was there last night, remember?" He said in a loaded tone of voice.

He hadn't meant to say it, it had just slipped out in response. He looked up to see her staring at him with a shocked look on her face, and her eyes wider than usual.

"I promise, I won't call you that anymore, okay?" He said hoping to smooth over the moment and _not_ have to talk about it.

"Thank you." She said simply and let it drop.

She picked up a mirror and a set of tweezers and started plucking and shaping her eyebrows. Quil had just moved to her second foot when she winced while using the tweezers to pull at her face.

"Why do you do that?" he asked totally mystified.

"Beauty is pain, Quilliam." She responded.

He just stopped working on her toes and looked up to give her a dark look in response to her calling him that. She was already looking down at him in anticipation of his reaction and immediately burst out laughing when she saw him. He started laughing too and realized it had been so long since they had this. Just spending time together, laughing, carefree. He missed that.

"Are you nervous for tonight?" he asked her concerned.

"You know, I'm really not." She sounded surprised, and she continued, "I trust Bennett. So, I'm not nervous to go out with him."

"I wish I could say the same thing." He replied a little darkly.

"You should really try to get to know Bennett better. I think you would actually like him. He really reminds me of you sometimes." She said to him sincerely.

He was trying really hard not to analyze _that_ too much.

"Have you met his parents yet?" he asked trying to change the subject.

"Not yet, but I'm going to meet his mom tonight before the dance." She answered.

"Hey lovebirds." Leah said while pushing the door opened

Quil wished she would drop the whole 'lovebirds' thing already. They weren't together, and she needed to quit acting like they were. It just put unneeded pressure on both of them.

"Ooh, Quil, nice! Don't forget the topcoat." She immediately goaded him.

He resisted the urge to yank Leah's feet out from under her.

"Oh, Claire, I love the black! So edgy, so chic!" she said while admiring her toes.

Claire just gave Quil a look that said _see, I told you so_

"Yeah 'cause Leah knows what she's talking about. When's the last time she went out with someone?" Quil responded getting revenge for Leah's goading.

That earned him a swift kick to the chest (that actually did hurt) from the wolf-girl.

"Look who's talking, Quil. When was the last time _you_ kissed a girl?" Leah retaliated.

It was suddenly too hot in Claire's small room and he and Claire made quick, alarmed eye contact with each other for a split second before immediately looking away.

"Well I think my toes look great, Quil, thanks!" said Claire quickly changing the subject, "Leah, what do you think we should start with?"

"Waxing! Definitely!" Leah responded so she must not have noticed anything unusual.

"Waxing what!?" Claire asked obviously concerned.

" _EVERYTHING_!" said Leah dramatically.

"AND… that's my cue. I'm gonna go find Jamie." Said Quil before he had to hear anymore.

Leah immediately started laughing.

"I'm just kidding! I'm still not a propionate of you dating other people and not getting together with Quil, so there is no way I'm going to help you get past first base tonight." Leah said airily.

"What bases!? Leah! You're not helping me here!" Quil said wanting to pull out his hair. No, wanting to pull out Leah's hair.

Claire was laughing, probably more at Quil's reaction than at Leah's comments.

"But seriously, why don't I start with your hair and you can paint your fingernails at the same time." Leah said completely ignoring Quil.

Quil was trying to sneak out at that point when Claire said, "Quil! Thank you." with a big smile that basically melted his heart.

"Of course." He replied easily as he snuck out the door. Didn't she know that he would do anything for her?

Approximately two and a half hours later Claire was deemed finished. Quil had played at least six board games with Jamie and hadn't been able to get near Claire the whole time. Leah had constantly been hovering over her with hair spray and make up and curling irons. Quil was starting to feel antsy about not being able to actually see her and was hovering in the hall near the game closet, under the cover of picking out a new game for him and Jamie, when he overheard Claire speaking to Leah,

"Oh crap, Leah! I completely forgot about a bra! There's no way I can wear one of my normal _pink_ bras with my dress!"

Quil had no idea why all of Claire's bras would be pink but he was sure he didn't need to know.

"You don't have a strapless bra?" Leah asked.

"I've never needed one before." Claire responded.

"Well I have one at home you can borrow, but I'm not sure we're the same cup size and it's all the way in La Push. Should I send Quil to go get it?" Leah asked.

Quil was about to make himself seriously scarce. There was nothing he wouldn't do for Claire but driving forty minutes round trip to dig through Leah's bras definitely fell in the category of _Please NEVER make me do that_. Then he heard Claire say,

"That's okay, I'll see if Rachel has one that I can borrow. She and I should be about the same size."

 _Oh, thank goodness_. He thought to himself as Claire came out into the hall from the bathroom. Her hair was in some sort of giant fro of hot rollers and the bottle of nail polish was in her hand. She was still wearing the robe. She smiled at Quil when she saw him in the hall and touched his arm softly as she past him on her way to Rachel's room. Quil grabbed a game at random and started walking away to make it not obvious that he had been listening in while he heard Claire softly knock on Rachel's door.

"Hey, Rachel, here's this back. Thanks, it's perfect!" he heard her say sincerely.

She walked the rest of the way into Rachel's room before asking, "Hey, do you have a strapless bra I could borrow? It's that or go braless and I really don't think there's enough lining for support."

Quil was positive that he didn't want to overhear anymore of the getting-ready-process at that point. If Claire needed him she would call for him, until then he was going to stay downstairs with Jamie.

He had never seen Claire looking as grown up and beautiful as she did when she headed down the stairs ready for Homecoming. Her dress that had been made from the top she'd bought, was a champagne color. The lining was a strapless top with a sweetheart neckline that had a sheer chiffon cover sewn on with thick straps that covered her shoulders and its own neckline that followed her clavicle in a scoop neck. The neckline followed around to the back where an opening dipped down to between her shoulder blades than button together at the top of her spine. It was fitted down her waist and then had a skirt that was sewn on just above her hips, the full skirt came to just below the middle of Claire's thighs and then arched all the way down to the floor in front of her, highlighting her long cheerleader legs, where it came around into a train that followed about a foot behind her trailing on the floor.

She had strategically placed two deep pleats in front of each of her hips to give the dress dimension and architecture. She was wearing four-inch strappy black stilettos and had, of course (thanks to Quil) black toenails, and fingernails. Leah had done a brown smoky eye with her makeup and had blown out her undereye with a dramatic soft brown that definitely made her look mature for her age. She had done a nude but very glossy lip and her whole face seemed to be glowing. She was wearing stud earrings that looked like big sparkly diamonds and a braided leather promise bracelet, Quil had made it for her as a child and couldn't believe that it still fit her small wrist. She also had a white- gold bangle that her dad had given to her for the occasion. Leah had teased her hair up in the front into a large smooth pompadour that highlighted and left the attention on her face. The rest of her hair was pulled up and back in a braided version of a classic French twist.

Of course, Quil didn't know what any of that meant, but it was what Claire had told him to say when Emily had called and asked about what she was wearing. Quil just said (a little scornfully) that "She looks more fitting for Hollywood than Homecoming." He didn't like her looking so mature and amazing at the same time, it seemed like too lethal of a combination. But his comment earned him a huge smile from Claire. That was the point when Emily insisted on FaceTiming so that she could see her herself.

It was about ten minutes before Bennett would get there with his mom (to take pictures of the couple together.) and Claire was ready and packing her little black purse. The rest of the family was running around frantically prepping the house before the "guests" got there. Claire came up to Quil and he noticed that she had never been so closed to his height before even if he was still about eight inches taller. She had been five four last year but Quil knew she had to be five five by now and with her heels was standing at about five nine. She smiled at him and asked,

"So, what do you think, Quil? Still a Nino?" as she gestured towards her overall appearance and did a small shimmy to emphasize her dress. She was obviously happy and excited, and she definitely looked amazing as her dress fanned out around her while she moved.

"Definitely no Nino." He answered confidently. "You look great, Claire, really. Incredibly beautiful."

He was trying desperately to keep himself from begging her to not go, but he couldn't help letting a "Claire, are you sure you want to go out with him tonight? You know, you don't have to." from escaping.

She just studied him for a minute, before she replied.

"Yeah. I'm sure. I think I need this, Quil. If there is ever going to be an _US_ in the future I need to know who I am without _you_. With other people. And Bennett seems like really good 'other people', I really like him, Quil." She said it very confidently.

Quil was at a loss for words for a moment but eventually recovering said simply,

"Well Makah-Claire, you look amazing."

"You'll always be my Quil-Quileute." She said holding up her arm to show him her promise bracelet. "And I won't forget that." she promised with a wink.

 _Where does this girl get this level of confidence!?_ He thought to himself but then got another look at her appearance and thought. _How could you NOT be that confident when you look like that_.

Before he could respond there was a knock on the front door which Robert (of course doing his fatherly duty) went to answer. Quil evaluated Claire again to see if she was getting anxious but true to her word she didn't look nervous, just excited.

Bennett came in then, followed by a woman who must be his mother. 'Hi, I'm Karen.' Quil overheard her introduce herself to Claire's parent's but he was keeping strict eyes on Bennett. 

Bennett only had eyes for Claire, he didn't even seem to notice Quil's giant sized presence next to her.

"Wow, Claire. Just wow." He said dazed.

He truly seemed blown away _. Well at least that's something._ Quil thought a little critically.

It was quiet for a moment or two while Bennett couldn't do anything but stare at Claire, until Claire said

"Hi, Mrs. Callahan! I'm Claire." While holding out her hand to his mom.

"Oh yeah, sorry!" said Bennett seeming to snap out of it a little bit. "Mom, this is her. this is Claire." He said while never looking away from her.

His mom laughed while taking Claire's hand in both of hers and said, "It's nice to meet you, Claire, you're definitely as beautiful as Bennett said you were."

It was definitely getting past too hot in the crowded room and Quil, who had started shaking a moment before, was starting to worry that if he didn't make his escape soon he would phase right there.

"Claire, have fun tonight. I got to get going." He said as casually as could manage. He had just started vibrating.

"What!?" she asked surprised by his sudden self-dismissal and looked over at him before understanding lit her face "Oh! Okay yeah! GO, Quil!" She said intensely and then trying to sound more casual added, "I'll see you later."

He heard her, but he was already out the door. He barely made it out of eyeline when he started running. He ran as fast as he could the quarter mile from her house to the trees, barely making it before he let go of his restraint and let the wolf explode out of him, shredding his clothes, shoes, everything.

And then he was running, but now as the giant brown wolf. He hadn't had an 'incident of imminent phasing' in years. He hadn't thought that he would have lost control like that but seeing the adoring way that Bennett had looked at her had made the wolf in him want to rip his throat out.

He could hear Brady and Collin running patrol five miles north, and their unspoken curiosity at his sudden appearance as a wolf, but of course they got an instant replay in the uncontrolled flashes in his mind, much as he try to block them. _Wow, she looks AMAZING_ thought Collin to which Quil actually snarled and snapped his mussel at him, even though Collin was still miles away. Brady, who had an imprint of his own, was more sympathetic and thought _, That sucks man, sorry._ towards Quil.

Quil didn't bother responding. He was thankful for the escape from his human mind and gave himself over to the wolf instincts and just ran. He ran for hours, miles and miles. Eventually he had the sense to turn toward the left so that he was at least running in a giant circle and not just _away_ through the heavy woods. Just about the time he was getting slightly winded and his mind seemed to have finally run itself out, he hit the about 5 miles spot south of the Makah reservation. He headed straight to the back line of the garage. The woods ended about ten feet from the door of the shop. One of the reasons he had chosen this property was its access to the woods.

There was nothing for it, he would just have to run for it from the cover of the trees to the garage in his naked human form. He phased back at the tree line and was relieved to find that his human mind did indeed seemed to have run itself into quiet submission. He looked around to make sure that the coast was clear before his dash into the open when he suddenly realized that he just really didn't care right now and strolled out at an even pace walking calmly the entire way to the garage. He seemed to have made it without being spotted since he hadn't heard any alarmed screams and he headed up to his apartment.

He opened the door and walked in to find Leah sprawled out on his bed (instead of the couch) watching tv.

"Hey, Quil." She said casually making no reference to his full nudity. He threw his hands up and said, "Leah, what the hell are you doing here?" before grabbing a towel out of the basket on the floor and wrapping it around his waist.

"Oh please." She responded, "Don't act like I haven't seen you naked before, Quil, hate to break it to you, but I don't care. Now get dressed, I want to talk to you."

He just stared at her for a second. Then the same sensation that he had at the tree line hit him and he really just didn't care. He brazenly dropped his towel and said, "What do you want, Leah?" he grabbed a pair of his boxer briefs out of the basket and put them on.

"To talk to you. I already said that." She responded.

He pulled on a pair of gym shorts but chose to not put on a shirt in the hopes that his shirtlessness would make her uncomfortable enough to leave. He moved over to sit in a chair at the table, turning it around to face Leah on the bed.

"Talk about what? I'm not really in a chatty mood." He replied curtly.

"About Claire, obviously." She said like he was stupid.

He didn't respond. He did _NOT_ want to talk about Claire right now, especially with Leah.

"Are you seriously going to tell me that nothing happened between you two? I can smell her on your sheets, Quil." She said surprisingly softly.

"She slept over two weeks ago." Quil responded without feeling.

"And you haven't changed your sheets?" she said squirming away on the bed a bit.

"I was going to, but…" he started but let his sentence drop.

"…You'd lose her scent." She finished for him. He didn't reply.

"Why are you letting her do this, Quil?" she asked in a soft voice.

He immediately put his face in his hands discouraged.

"What am I _supposed_ to do, Leah?" he asked her half sincerely and half exasperated. He felt like his heart might have been ripped in half, twisted around and placed back inside of him.

"Be _with_ her! She _WANTS_ to be with you! I can see it in her face every time she looks at you." She told him.

"She's fifteen! And she's not ready, what am I going to do? Hold her hostage until she turns twenty-one?" he responded.

"Psh." She scoffed at him "She's almost sixteen and you know it, besides if she is old enough to date, why is she not old enough to date _YOU_? Twenty-one." She finished with another scoff.

"Because I'm thirty!" he said completely exasperated now.

"Oh, when are you going to get over this age thing? You look at most twenty-five and were frozen in place at seventeen, so get over yourself!" she chided him.

He just shook his head at her knowing she didn't get it, before she continued,

"What if she falls in love with him? Huh? What then? She can't _BE_ with him, not permanently anyway, so what good will it do when she falls for him?"

"I don't know, Leah! I just know, I CAN'T stop her from being with him. What would that say about me? Especially to her!" he responded.

She just shrugged and then said,

"Maybe you need to fight for her."

He looked at her like she was crazy. "She's _NOT_ ready. At least not for me, she seems to be ready for _HIM._ " he said a little bitterly.

She sighed, seeming to resign herself to the situation and said, "Well you know her best, if you say she's not ready than I believe you. I just don't want to see you lose the one person who it would destroy you to lose."

"Yeah, you and me both." He sighed surprising himself with his honesty.

He looked at the clock. It was 1:30 am. He was surprised he had run for about four hours before making it back. He then remembered that he had left his phone on the kitchen table at Claire's house before his untimely exit.

"Look, Leah, I lost my phone when I phased. I got to go track it down and see if it survived….so… good talk." He said getting up and walking out on her without giving her the chance to respond.

He let her think he had his phone on him when he phased, instead of letting her know that he was going back to Claire's house. He was going to have to find a way to sneak in so that he could grab it. He could wait until the next morning to get it, of course, but he wanted to be available for Claire at any time tonight in case she needed him.

He didn't bother driving. He didn't want to besides he had left his car behind when he had phased anyways. He just walked barefoot letting the cool night air clear his head and flush out the unproductive conversation with Leah. Even for him, he made it to Claire's house in record time. He was sussing out the best window for a break in without disturbing the family, when he saw the light to Claire's room turn on.

He just couldn't help himself. Before letting himself think about what he was doing he scaled the wall to her window. The drapes were closed but he could see her blurry outline standing at her dresser taking off her earrings. He tapped lightly on the glass. She turned around and came to the window. She pushed back the drapes and unlocked the window she had never locked before, pushing it open before stepping out of the way to let him in. He pushed through the window and landed on the balls of his feet in a squat before straightening up.

They just looked at each other for a second before they both said "Hi." at the same time in quiet voices. They heard someone moving in the hall, and Claire went to the switch by the door and flipped the light off so that no one would come in and find Quil there.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered in the dark.

"I left my phone when I … er …. Left earlier..." he finished lamely in a whisper.

"…. Where is your shirt?"

"…I forgot it." He answered honestly. He hadn't realized that he still wasn't wearing one until that moment.

"…And your shoes?"

"…I forgot those too."

She just stayed by the door for a minute staring up at him, before coming to him and placing her hand on his forehead and rubbing his hairline.

"Oh, my Quil-Quileute. I really messed with that head tonight, didn't I?" she said in a soft whisper.

He didn't say anything, he just grabbed her wrist and held it to his head while he closed his eyes and leaned his head in so that she was cradling it in her small hand.

They just stood like that for a few moments and then she sighed,

"I'll go get your phone, you had better wait here."

And then she left him alone in the dark room without her. He looked around for the first time and noticed a white sash on her bed that read HOMECOMING PRINCESS in silver glitter.

She was back a moment later with his phone in her hand. He noticed the small tiara on her head as she handed it to him.

"You were Homecoming Princess?" he asked her tenderly,

"Yeah" she scoffed as if it was no big deal.

"I didn't even know that you had been nominated." He told her.

"Neither did I. It was a total surprise." She told him honestly.

"Well… do I get my dance with the Homecoming Princess?" he asked while holding his hands out towards her.

She just gave him a small, tender smile and accepted his hands, letting him pull her close into his bare chest. As they danced together silently in the dark, he leaned his head down towards hers, he smelled a flower in her hair that he hadn't noticed before, it was an orchid positioned strategically in the back of her hair. He realized that Bennett must have given it to her in leu of a corsage. He felt a lump growing in his throat that made him need to swallow a few times trying to get it down. After a few moment's she broke the silence,

"You know I was really hoping to get a picture with you before you had to 'leave'." She said using his choice of word.

Grateful for the distraction from his emotions he said softly, "Well, am I too late?" while holding up his phone.

She smiled, "I guess not."

He held up the phone and she leaned into him and smiled while he took a selfie. He brought it down for them to look at.

"I like that one." She said, "It looks like _US_."

He was reminded of her context in using the word _'US'_ earlier in the evening and smiled.

"Yeah, it does." He said with a smile. "Well I should go so you can get some sleep."

Her eyes looked a little sad, but she said, "Goodnight, my Quil-Quileute."

"Goodnight, Homecoming-Princess." He replied.

He held her close and smelled her for one more second before letting her go and climbing up her window seal so that he was crouched in its open frame. He had been about to jump when he turned around to get a last look at Claire standing where he had left her in her homecoming dress. Her face seemed impassive until she gave him a small but regretful smile before he let himself freefall backwards towards the ground only catching himself at the last second.

 **Claire:**

Claire woke up the next morning and decided that this must be what it feels like to be hung over. She hadn't actually had any alcohol last night, but her head was pounding, and it felt like her intestines had twisted themselves into a giant knot.

As soon as Quil had left the night before she had immediately pulled the tiara off her head and tossed it on the floor in the corner of her room. She quickly bent down and unbuckled her shoes, kicked them off while pulling at the orchid Bennett had given her in her hair. When it wouldn't come easily she just yanked at it and pulled the pins out of her hair until it and her hair all came down in one heaping mess. She managed to snag the flower out and smack it down on her dresser almost crushing it in the process before she threw herself down in a heap on her bed and completely broke down. She had sobbed and sobbed, she felt like she couldn't get enough air (probably having something to do with the stupid corset she was wearing). She had finally cried herself to sleep around five in the morning.

A few minutes earlier, she had come to a complete awareness without even opening her eyes. She was still in her dress, she could immediately feel it around her. She felt like she was stuck in the spot she had burrowed herself into while bawling the night before. She was sure she was supposed to open her eyes, but she just didn't want to – couldn't bring herself to. Partly because once she did, she knew she would have to face the world around her and partly because her head ached so much she didn't want to face the light. Instead she laid motionless and replayed in her mind the events of the entire day before.

She had been taking the polish off her toenails in her room as she waited for her mask to set when she heard voices down stairs, she had to cock her head to listen but…. Quil was here! She could hear him talking to her mom. She quickly screwed the cap back on the nail polish remover, hopped up and ran down the stairs to find him. She immediately noticed the serious look on his face, he always looked so serious these days. But he had looked up at her for a moment and then smiled and teased her about her appearance, that was a good start. Maybe if she could spend a few minutes alone with him she could get him to lighten up, with that in mind she asked him to paint her toenails.

She had been truly shocked but encouraged when Rachel had thoughtfully leant her her nail polish. She had told Rachel the night before that she wanted to go for a more "edgy" look for Homecoming, and when Rachel had overheard her tell her mom she couldn't find something that worked with her dress she had known that the black would be perfect.

Claire had loved spending time with Quil while prepping for Homecoming. It had felt so _normal_ for them and they hadn't had that in a while. She loved joking and laughing with him as she told him about her feelings about going to Homecoming with Bennett. She had even been comfortable enough to find the courage to tell him honestly why she had never liked her _Nino_ nickname. She had been shocked by his quip about knowing just how much she wasn't a boy, or a child, or whichever he was referring to, because of their night before. Her thoughts had been reeling about how maybe he hadn't taken their soft kiss as lightly and insignificantly as she had thought he had. But then they were interrupted by Leah and she was too distracted by trying to make sure she kept the peace before Leah really upset Quil with her talk of how Claire was dating someone else and should be with him.

Claire didn't mind Leah's good-natured quipping, but she knew that it was always distressing to Quil and she wished that Leah would wait until they were alone together before jumping in so much. Quil had seemed determined to get out of the room as quickly as possible, and Claire had wished that Leah had waited twenty more minutes before she had gotten there, she had wanted to express to Quil how grateful she was to him for always being so willing to do anything to make her happy. He had after all kissed her (which just about went against everything he stood for given her age.) just because she had told him how important it was to her, and then there he was, back the next day, painting her toenails and teasing her. She wanted to tell him what it meant to her, his constant selfless willingness to put her first in his life, but she didn't get a chance before Leah got there. Instead she had to settle for a simple "Quil! Thank you." before he escaped out the door.

Claire spent the rest of the afternoon primping with Leah, and she had actually had a really great time despite the slightly rough start they had gotten off to. It reminded her of a spa night that she and Macy had had last year, they did pedicures and facials and had gossiped and had a lot of girl talk. It felt the same with Leah. Claire couldn't believe that Leah was actually thirty-three. Not only did she not look her age, but she just seemed so much closer to Claire's own age than that. She reminded Claire of how it felt to bond with the older junior and senior girls on the squad, but even better because she didn't have to keep any of her secrets from Leah. Their girl talk could include imprinting and werewolves and everything that went along with their complex lives. Leah had even surprised her when she had confided in her about her own loneliness. Claire knew it must be incredibly lonely to watch wolf-brother after wolf-brother imprint year after year and still be single. What she didn't know was Leah's belief that she _couldn't_ physically imprint on someone.

"What? What do you mean? Why not?" Claire had asked her in disbelieve.

She shrugged simply and said, "Sam didn't imprint on me." Like that was a reason.

Claire had rolled her eyes and said,

"Leah, you can't honestly believe that Sam was your _one and only_."

"No! Of course not. It's the whole wolf-baby thing. As long as I'm a wolf, I can't have babies and if I was any good for baby making to begin with, then I think Sam would have imprinted on _me_ , and if I can't have wolf babies, then there would be no way I could imprint. It would defeat the whole purpose." She had said it simply, but Claire could see the deep pain hidden below the surface.

"Oh, Leah!" She had said softly. She had completely turned around on the stool she was sitting on while Leah placed the hot rollers in her hair. "You _can't_ seriously think that!?"

"Of course." She said with shrug but said less certainly, "I mean, I don't know. What do you think the point of imprinting is? You obviously have way more experience with the whole imprinter/imprint relationship than I do."

Claire was a little shocked at suddenly being asked her opinion on the heavy subject and felt more than a little unprepared.

"I'm not sure," Claire answered honestly, "I mean, I'd really like to think that I wasn't born with my sole purpose in life to give Quil babies."

"Oh of course not!" Leah said sounding horrified "I'm sorry, Claire, I never meant to imply that!"

"No, it's okay!" she answered quickly to put Leah at ease, "I know that Quil doesn't believe that, so I guess I don't either."

"What does Quil believe?" Leah asked curiously.

"You probably know his mind better than I do." Claire pointed out.

Leah shook her head and said, "I only see what's going through his mind at the time, and even that is pretty severely driven by the wolf instincts. He and I have had so many years of practice blocking out our personal thoughts, more than any of the other wolves at this point. No, _you_ know his head better than _anyone_ Claire."

Claire was pleasantly surprised by this revelation, she had pretty much always assumed that anything she told to Quil would be unintentionally shared with the rest of the pack. It was a relieve to find that there were things she could share with him without sharing with the rest of their extended wolf family.

"Well…." she started, hesitating for a bit before continuing certainly, "Quil believes in soulmates I guess… That the wolves imprint to find the one their soul is supposed to always be with. Otherwise he wouldn't have imprinted on me as a child. It would have happened when I was old enough to have his babies, or he could have just imprinted on some random eighteen-year-old that he could knock up immediately."

Leah looked horrified again.

"He said that to you!?" she asked scandalized.

"No!" Claire assured her and then laughed at the idea of Quil telling her all about his potential to knock up some random girl. "I think I was six when I overheard him tell that to Embry. He said he imprinted on me when I was two because even then his soul was meant to be with mine."

Leah was teary eyed now. "Well at least that's something." She said a little emotionally.

"Leah." Claire started while grabbing her hands, "You'll have that. You just haven't met him yet…hmm maybe you need to start traveling…. You know meet more guys…. Oh, maybe you should try tinder!" she said to try to lighten Leah's mood.

"Psh." Leah scoffed and then laughed at the idea. It was quiet for a moment and then Leah asked softly,

"So, do you believe that? That Quil is your soulmate I mean."

Claire was thoughtful for a moment before she replied,

"I don't know, I guess I never really thought about if _he_ was _my_ soulmate. I've just always known how important I am to him and how much he needs me that it's easy to assume that I'm who _he_ is supposed to be with. I've never really separated us as individuals, we've always just been 'Quil and Claire'."

"That must be hard Claire. Not feeling like your own person, separate from him." Leah speculated softly.

Claire shrugged, "Maybe sometimes…..." but then her attitude changed, "You know what? No! I have been _INCREDIBLY_ lucky to have Quil. No one else in the world has been given the gift that I was. To have someone there for you, your whole entire life, who finds their true happiness in your happiness. I could never resent Quil for that."

Leah seemed a little doubtful but then suddenly changed the subject. "So, tell me about this Bennett? What is he like?"

Claire smiled before she started to describe to Leah the way Bennett made her feel, both about herself, and about him.

Leah had just asked Claire to describe her dress when Claire realized that buying a strapless bra had been on her to-do list and that she had completely forgotten to make sure it got done!

"Oh crap, Leah! I completely forgot about a bra! There's no way I can wear one of my normal _pink_ bras with my dress!" she said slightly distressed.

Leah had bit her lip and made a face at the predicament.

"You don't have a strapless bra?" Leah asked looking worried.

"I've never needed one before." Claire responded slightly embarrassed at her own lack of appropriate wardrobe.

"Well I have one at home you can borrow, but I'm not sure we're the same cup size and it's all the way in La Push. Should I send Quil to go get it?" Leah asked doubtfully.

Claire knew that Leah was probably two full cup sizes bigger than she was and couldn't see that working. She thought quickly and then responded with,

"That's okay, I'll see if Rachel has one that I can borrow. She and I should be about the same size."

After all Rachel had been being unusually nice to Claire lately, and maybe Claire being vulnerable enough to actually ask for a favor would be the olive branch Rachel needed to be on friendly terms with her. She grabbed the bottle of black nail polish off the counter to use as an excuse to go in Rachel's room. Leah was putting away all the hot roller supplies before they started Claire's makeup, so she decided now was the best time to ask. She walked out into the hall to see Quil standing by the game closet, he turned to look at her as she walked out, and she was grateful for the silent reminder that he was still there, looking out for her, just out of her sight line. She brushed past him and knocked on Rachel's partially open door while saying,

"Hey Rachel, here's this back. Thanks, it's perfect!"

She saw Rachel look up from her spot on her bed, she was laying on her stomach with her feet in the air and appeared to be reading a book backwards. Claire quickly came the rest of the way into Rachel's room not wanting Rachel to think she was just brushing past to take what she needed from her,

"Hey, do you have a strapless bra I could borrow? It's that or go braless and I really don't think there's enough lining for support."

She realized she might be over-explaining, but she thought that if she gave more intimate details that Rachel might feel more inclined to share with her.

Rachel shook her head and said, "Sorry, I don't have anything that you're looking for…you know what!? I do have something that might work!" she finished suddenly.

"I don't know if you're actually going to want to wear it though." Rachel said as she dug through her closet. "Here!" she exclaimed as she pulled a strapless corset out of her closet and handed it to Claire.

It was bright red and had intricate lace details all over it. It even had some black lace edging and looked like the type of lingerie that was usually accompanied by black leather and ridding crops.

"Rachel, why do you even have this?" Claire asked laughing at the intensity of it.

"Cosplay!" she said like an obvious explanation.

"Oh, cosplay. Of course!" Claire said like she had been stupid, "You know Rachel I think this will actually work, if nothing else I'll definitely have enough support!"

They laughed together and then Rachel said, "well it'll hold you into the dress, but you probably won't be able to breath all night. Do you think the color will show through the dress?"

"I don't think so; the lining is pretty thick. I'd know, I had to sew into it." Claire said honestly, "Thank you Rachel, I really appreciate it." And leaned in to give her a hug.

Rachel seemed shock by the unexpected physical attack of affection but after a moment she hugged Claire back without saying anything.

"So, will I see you there tonight?" Claire asked. It was Rachel's senior year after all. Even if she wasn't into the whole stereotypical high school experience Claire hoped that she wouldn't miss every experience just to make a statement.

"I don't know. I wasn't planning on it, but some of my friends are going in a group, so maybe." She answered while giving Claire more personal information in one sentence than she probably had in a year.

"Well you should come! It'd be really fun to see you there." Claire said while starting to back out of the room. She didn't want to push Rachel too far all at once.

"Maybe." She answered with a noncommittal shrug while going back to her book.

"Are you reading that book backwards?" Claire asked intrigued.

"It's a manga book." She answered and then looked up to see Claire looking more confused. She laughed at the expression on Claire's face and explained,

"It's a Japanese comic book, they're written back to front."

"Oh, cool. Maybe I could check it out sometime?" said Claire hoping to keep Rachel going with her unusual sharing.

"Sure, here this is the first one of the series I'm in. Start there." She said as she tossed a book at her.

"Thanks." Claire responded catching it.

Rachel had gone back to her comic and seemed pretty engrossed in it. So, Claire backed out of the room and shut the door behind her. She was glad to see that Quil wasn't still loitering the hallway. She didn't even want to think about how she would explain a lacy red corset and Japanese comic book to him.

She got back to the bathroom to see that Leah had moved into her bedroom. She went in to find her setting up a lot of makeup materials on her desk.

"Hey, I thought we would do your make up in her since there is so much natural light in your room!" Leah said as soon as Claire came in.

"Sounds good." said Claire as she closed the door, she went to set the book on her desk when Leah asked, "What's that?!"

"Apparently a manga." Claire said holding up the book in her hand.

"No, _that_!" Leah said pointing to the corset in Claire's other hand.

She held it up for Leah's inspection.

"It was all Rachel had, what do you think?" she asked.

Leah raised some serious brow at it and said, "That'll work." She looked like she had more she wanted to say about it, but she held her tongue.

"Here help me put it on. I think I'll definitely need to get into it before my makeup." Claire said.

Leah agreed, and they spent the next ten minutes wrangling Claire into the corset that had to go over her head, then be hooked together all the way up the front, and then be laced up the back to the appropriate tightness.

Finally, they finished getting her into it and Claire did indeed feel like her boobs were secure and not facing any lack of support. She wrapped her robe back around herself. She didn't want Quil to come in and see her in just the corset. He would immediately think she was intentionally wearing it for Bennett and it would not go over well.

She sat down on the stool Leah had brought in from the bathroom so that she could start her makeup. Her robe was hanging loosely around her shoulders and was open at the front until about her waist. Her hot rollers were still in her hair and Leah immediately began, "Wow, so sexy, Claire! You look like a boudoir photo. Maybe after I do your makeup I should send Quil up to see what he's missing out on tonight."

Claire blushed. "Oh please, Leah, you know Quil doesn't look at me like that. Even if he saw me now, he'd probably just ask why I was playing dress up with lingerie." She had whispered it knowing how good Quil's hearing was and not wanting him to overhear her.

"Oh, I doubt that." Leah said at full volume as she started working on Claire's makeup. She spoke more softly when she continued, "I've never asked you though how you feel about your age difference. Does it bother you, Quil being so much older than you?"

Claire shrugged and said, "Not really. I just wish he would take me more seriously sometimes. But I get it, I don't take Jamie seriously, so I can see why he would feel the same way."

"Yeah, that's not the same at all." Leah said before continuing, " _I_ think he takes you seriously."

Claire thought for a second, "Yeah. He's a great listener."

"But you don't want to _be with_ him?" Leah probed.

"It's not that, he just…. doesn't see me. Besides he has so much life experience, he feels out of my reach sometimes." She explained honestly.

"And you don't feel that way with Bennett?" Leah asked with understanding.

"No." Claire smiled, "With Bennett I feel like he and I are experience everything together for the first time... I really like it."

"Close your eyes." Leah commanded as she started attacking her face with a makeup brush before she asked Claire what she wanted for her 'look'.

Claire didn't notice that Leah didn't bring up either Quil or Bennett the rest of the time she was helping her.

Claire knew that it was probably time to open her eyes and face her (more than yesterday) complicated life. She gave herself a few more moments of escape by remembering that moment she and Bennett had had at the dance.

They had been dancing together for about a half an hour and Claire had been having a great time when a dreaded slow song came on. Bennett had just immediately, smoothly, and confidently pulled her to him and started dancing with her. She loved the way he could do things like that and make things not awkward instantly, unlike all of the other couples around them who were now facing the decision to either go sit down or one of them awkwardly asking the other to dance a slow dance. Bennett had just placed her left hand on his chest right below his shoulder and then placed his hand around her waist, resting it on her lower back, as he held her right hand in his left while holding their arms loosely to the side while keeping their combined hands close to him. She had been enjoying the excitement of the moment that stemmed from dancing so close to him when he surprised her by saying seriously,

"I'm sorry, Claire."

She looked up at him in surprise, she had been studying the way is hand encompassed her own and enjoying it more she would have ever expected.

"For what?" she asked shocked. She had been having a lot of fun and couldn't imagine what he had to apologize for.

"I think I kind of sneak-attacked you when I asked you to Homecoming. The truth is I've wanted to ask you out for a long time…since last year actually. I just never had the nerve to do it…. But if I had just done it, then this wouldn't have been our first date." He confessed while ever so slightly moving closer to her as he swayed them side to side.

She thought she might have just fallen in love with that confession. He had wanted to ask her out since last year!? She could feel her face heat with bashful pleasure at the thought.

"That's alright. I'm just glad you _did_ ask me, and I think this is the perfect first date." She dared to say while looking him in the eye. He smiled hugely down at her like she had just said the perfect thing.

"Yeah?" he asked in his good-natured voice. "You're glad I asked you out?"

He pulled her even closer to him. Claire was losing awareness of everything else around them. It was just HIM. Right in front of her. That was all there was for her anymore. Everything else was blurring out of focus.

"Yeah." She said softly with a smile. "I really am."

And then he kissed her.

It seemed like a single moment that was frozen in time. For the span of about five heartbeats, there was nothing. No music, no people, no casino ballroom. Just Bennett's lips on hers. She had stopped breathing until he slowly pulled back from her, and then his corresponding smile might have been better than that _perfect_ kiss. She felt in that moment her life would never be the same. She would never just be the girl that belonged to a wolf again. She was a (albeit young) woman who had been kissed and kissed well.

She laid her head against his chest as they continued dancing. She could hear his heart pounding in his chest before he asked,

"Claire?"

"Bennett?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

He seemed to have stopped breathing as soon as he said it. She felt his chest freeze against her cheek. She had almost frozen for the smallest second, but then her heart broke out in a sprint and she answered without hesitation,

"Yes."

He didn't say anything else. He just kept holding her and dancing, but she could feel his huge breath of relief let out and his heartbeat gradually slow to a more normal rhythm as she smiled into his chest. And she couldn't help herself, she just thought he was the cutest thing she had ever seen. Everything about him, from his non-arrogant confidence, to his unapologetic feelings for her. She just never wanted him to stop holding her close while she danced with him.

As she sat up in bed she slapped her hands to face. She had to tell him. She had to tell Quil that she had agreed to be Bennett's girlfriend. And she had to do it today. Somehow it was _ALL OVER_ the dance. She had no idea how people had found out so quickly, but people were talking about it everywhere. Somehow it was huge news that the sophomore cheerleader was dating the new junior football star. _Can it get more high-school?_ Thought Claire, who just couldn't understand why people would care that they were holding hands walking on and off the dance floor.

She hadn't known that she was nominated for Homecoming Court until they had been accosted by a teacher-chaperone. They had been sitting at a table, laughing and eating when a frazzled looking student-counsel advisor came up to them and asked if they had submitted their votes for Homecoming Court. When they said they hadn't she handed them ballets and told them to fill them out "immediately" and submit them in the box. It was when Claire was filling hers out that she saw her name on the list. She _should_ have known. They had announced the nominees earlier in the week, but Claire had been so distracted all week with Quil and Bennett that she hadn't noticed. People only listen to the nominations for Queen and King anyways.

They had complied and submitted their ballets, Bennett making a big deal about making a big check mark and voting for her, and then they had gone back out on the dance floor. Bennett had been begging her to do her round-off-back-hand-spring right there on the dance floor in her heels and dress while she laughed uncontrollably. "I'm serious! If you do it, you are sure to win the 'best moves' superlative in the yearbook!" he had told her while wrapping his arms around her as she had practically snorted with laughter. He was laughing at her uncontrollable laugher at that point when the administration came over the microphone and said that they were announcing the Homecoming Court. She was still standing with Bennett slightly behind her and to the side his arms around her waist, when they had announced her as princess and every head turned to look at her (in hindsight that might have been when people had realized they were together she thought to herself in bed.) She was stunned. Sophomores almost never won these things. Bennett had immediately started laughing in her ear. He wasn't surprised at all. He just gently shoved her towards the stage and said, "Go get your crown, Princess!". She was sure she was blushing as the vice-principle had shove the tiara into her hair. "Thanks." She had said timidly before looking out at the crowd that was politely applauding while waiting for the announcement of the queen, and she caught a glimpse of Macy in the corner of the ballroom. Claire had never seen her look so _NOT happy. CRAP! Macy!_ She had thought to herself.

The joy of reliving the moments at Homecoming didn't outweigh the stress of knowing she had to tell Quil before someone else did. She needed to check her phone, she thought as she looked at the dark screen sitting on her bedside table. She was sure she had texts to respond to, maybe from Quil, or her parents who for some strange reason were working that day, or maybe Macy wanting explanations, or even from Bennett wanting to see her again. She just wanted to stay there, dying in her uncomfortable underwear in her tight-fitting dress, sitting in the safety of her bed where she didn't have to face her life.

She didn't know if it was a general rule of life that every strong emotion, like the wild elated happiness she had felt dancing with Bennett after she had won Homecoming Princess, was followed by its opposite, like the intense agony she had felt after Quil had left last night, with dirt still in his hair from his uncontrolled phasing. But it sure seemed to be happening that way in her life lately.

She remembered her disappointment when Quil had run out the night before with a look that said he was definitely going to lose control. She had wanted to go after him. To calm him down. To keep him from phasing. She was the only one who would be able to. But then she had realized that Bennett and his mom were waiting to take pictures still and they were supposed to do the whole boutineer/coursage(in this case hairflower) thing.

She had already separated the part of her heart that belonged to Quil the day she had agreed to go to homecoming with Bennett, and he deserved her whole attention that night. So, she shoved that part of herself down as deep as she could. Quil had known this was coming. They had talked about it. He was a big boy. No, he was a grown man. And he needed to buck up for a few hours and be without her. Then, when homecoming was over, she would come back and be there for him. So that's what she had done. She had had an amazing time at the dance with Bennett. One of the best nights of her life. She had even seen Rachel there. She had been wearing a floor length spaghetti-strap gothic-looking black dress but she had looked good! Claire had even snuck over while Bennett was taking a few photo booth pictures with three of the guys from his team, to say hi.

"Rachel! I know I'm braking the rule by talking to you at a school event, but I just wanted to say hi, and that you look great!" Claire had basically whispered at her as quickly as she could.

"What rule?" Rachel had asked.

"You know the rule where you don't want me to talk to you anywhere people might actually be able to see? The one that's been in place since I started sixth grade." She explained quickly.

Rachel seemed completely shocked.

"You thought I didn't want people to see you talking to me?" she asked

"Um yeah? What else would I think? Listen Rachel I got to go, Bennett's waiting for me. I just wanted to say that I'm glad you came, and you look really nice!" Claire said with a smile as she started backing away back towards the dance floor.

"Okay. Congrats on winning, Claire." Rachel answered.

"What?" she asked confused, until Rachel pointed at her own head, indicating Claire's tiara. "Oh right! Thanks! I'll see you later!" then she smiled at the fact that she might have just shared her second good moment with Rachel in one day, before going back and dancing with Bennett until her feet hurt.

Claire had finally crawled out of bed, her body was incredibly stiff, and she thought her dress might be permanently stuck at this awkward angle where it seemed to be pressed strait up and to her left, in fact she was pretty sure that her panties where completely being flashed in the front on the left side. She slapped her hand to her face and forced herself to move as she started making her way towards the bathroom when she caught a glimpse of herself in the small mirror above her dresser. She looked _rough_. She hadn't taken off her makeup last night and she had cried a LOT. She had massive mascara streaks down her face, mixed with brown eyeshadow and black eyeliner smears. her foundation seemed to have pooled in strange spots where she had held her face in her hands.

She was too much of a mess to go out in the hall, so she went into the shared bathroom between her and Rachel's room. Rachel was already in there applying her usual liberal amounts of eyeliner.

"Yikes." She said as soon as she saw Claire. "Don't let dad see you like that, he'll think you had _way_ too much fun last night."

"Rachel," Claire said in a small voice that cracked. "can you help me get this off?"

"Okay!" Rachel said in a kind voice, she seemed to be afraid that Claire was going to start crying. Fortunately, Claire was pretty cried out.

They went back into Claire's room and Rachel unbuttoned the one button at the back of Claire's neck.

"Okay, it's got to come up over your head, right?" Rachel asked bracingly.

Claire just nodded exhausted.

"Okay, here we go!" said Rachel as she grabbed the hem of the dress as best she could and yanked it up in a swift movement.

After some wiggling on Claire's part they were able to get it off, then Rachel balled it up and threw it in a heap across to the hamper in the corner. Normally Claire would have been uncomfortable standing in just her plain black cotton work-out thong she used for cheer that she had worn the night before to avoid any panty-line issues and a raunchy red corset in front of Rachel, but today she was just grateful for the help.

"Here." Said Rachel as she started pulling on the laces of the corset to loosen it. "I can't believe you slept in this thing."

Claire just shrugged.

"Claire, what's going on with you?! When I saw you last, like eight hours ago, you were the happiest I've ever seen you, and that's saying something because you are an awfully perky person." Rachel pointed out.

She didn't know why she suddenly wanted to confide in her sister for the first time, but Claire just felt like she couldn't contain her feelings anymore, so tearing up a bit she said,

"Quil came over last night."

"After Homecoming?" Rachel asked as she finally untied the knot of laces and started loosening them enough for Claire to be able to breathe again.

Claire just nodded.

"And?" she prodded.

"…And it's like I broke him, Rachel!" her tears had started to fall now. "I _hurt_ him last night!" She was starting to sob and she put her arms around her waist to hold herself, which was good because the corset had finally come loose and was in danger of slipping to the floor and leaving her topless.

"Hey!" Rachel said kindly while wrapping her arms around Claire. "It's okay."

"How!? How is it okay!?" she asked a little dramatically.

"Claire, you don't owe Quil anything."

She had said it kindly but firmly. Claire just stared at her in shock. She owed Quil everything!

"No. I'm serious, I know you have this _mystical, magical_ bond, or whatever with him but _he_ imprinted on _you,_ Claire, as a _CHILD!_ You never made the choice to have him in your life. You need to claim your power as a woman! Remember your own greatness, and then make _your_ choices! If Quil is really your soulmate, or whatever, then he'll still be there, loving you, when it's all said and done."

It was possibly the longest rant Claire had heard Rachel make in years and it was on her behalf! Claire actually giggled a little.

"Thanks, Rachel!"

She was actually starting to feel a little better.

"Here let's get this off over my head." She said as she and Rachel started to pull the corset off over her.

She quickly pulled one of her normal _pink_ bras on and then threw on the same tank top and shorts that she had worn while getting ready the day before.

"You know I never meant to make you think you weren't allowed to talk to me." Rachel surprised Claire by saying.

"What? What do you mean?" asked Claire confused.

Rachel just sighed and sat down on the edge of Claire's bed.

"I was never ashamed of you, Claire. I just can't _compete_ with you."

Claire sat down next to her on the bed and said,

"Why would you ever need to compete with me!?"

"Claire. Look at you, you're perfect!" Rachel started (Claire would have liked to disagree seeing as she was currently looking like major trailer trash but Rachel seemed to be really trying to communicate something.) "And I'm so _NOT_. Even when we were little, I was this weird, artsy, intense kid, and you were so adorable that you literally created a mystical strength bond with someone at first sight. I mean you're the freaking Homecoming Princess!"

"Rachel!" Claire said horrified to hear this comparison of the two of them.

"No, it's okay Claire. I'm okay with who I am now… It just took a little while." She said with a shrug. "But look what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry. I never meant to alienate you so much in the process of figuring out who I am."

Claire threw her arms around her. She was crying again.

"Thank you, Rachel! And you really did look amazing last night! Did I see you dancing with Travis Kuhn?" she asked

Travis was the senior football captain at their high school.

"Yeah." Rachel admitted with a smile. "We started dating a couple weeks ago actually. He wanted to go to Homecoming together but even _my_ reputation couldn't handle something as mainstream as Homecoming with the football captain."

Claire laughed and said. "Good for you, girl!"

"You know, I really like Bennett. I was watching you two last night and I think he's good for you." She told Claire.

Claire smiled hugely and said,

"I really like him too."

Rachel patted Claire's leg and said,

"Then _he_ is who you need to be with. Don't worry Claire, I know it doesn't feel like it but it'll all work out."

Claire looked into her eyes and for some inexplicable reason completely trusted that her older sister knew what she was talking about.

"Thanks Rachel." She said sincerely.

"Yup." Rachel said seeming to morph back into her usual brisk self as she stood up and made her way back to their bathroom.

Claire took a deep breath once she was left alone again, then she grabbed her phone (and her courage) and decided to face this day head on.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

 **Quil:**

Quil had woken up that morning with a hot feeling of shame weighing down on his chest. He had come back home the night before, walked through the door, made sure that Leah had completely cleared out and then thrown himself on his bed exhausted. He still hadn't put a shirt on or showered. But he woke up to the cold light of day and realized how unfair he had been. He had, almost exactly twenty-four hours ago, decided that he needed to give Claire space to grow, and that he would allow her to be with Bennett if that was what she needed, and then last night he had completely lost control (literally) and worst of all, he had allowed Claire to see him that way, to be a witness in his worst hour of selfishness.

He knew it had affected her. It had only taken her one look to see right through him, and see exactly how messed up he had been last night and he knew she would have immediately put that on herself. Like she was somehow responsible for his stupid freak outs. He had messed up and he knew it. He needed to make it right with her. She had let him be there with her on her big night and he had totally blown it. What if she didn't want him around for her big moments anymore in fear that he couldn't handle it? He couldn't risk that. No, he needed to fix it and he needed to fix it now.

He immediately jumped out of bed, and headed over to the kitchen. He started riffling through his cabinets for ingredients. He didn't do much, if any, baking, but he knew that actions spoke much louder than words when it came to Claire. And him going through the hassle to actually make something for her was definitely his best bet for getting back in her good graces. Plus, he had a killer Cinnamon roll recipe from his Grandma Attera that he knew Claire loved.

Thinking of it made him reminisce to last summer when he had caught a nasty case of strep throat. Claire had wanted him to stay at her house while he was sick but he was terrified he would just end up giving it to her so he refused.

It had been about 9 in the morning when he heard a pounding knock on the door to his apartment. _What the hell!?_ He had thought. For someone to be knocking on the apartment door they would have had to already gone through the shop below. He was continuing to feel burning hot and then immediately freezing cold and couldn't get comfortable so he had ended up in a pair of sweatpants with no shirt on and a king-sized fleece blanket wrapped around his chest. He had managed to pull himself off the bed and lumber to the door before opening it. There in the doorway was little Claire. She was seriously weighed down with about a hundred blue and green reusable grocery bags, she had apparently banged on the door using her foot which is why it had been so loud. As soon as she saw him she did a small, "Whew!" and pushed at least six bags on his arms, before walking past him into the apartment and taking the rest of the bags to the kitchen. She hadn't even said hi.

"Claire, you can't be here." He had said in a terrible hoarse whisper.

She walked back to him and grabbed the bags in his arm before saying.

"Get back in bed." While nodding towards it with her head.

"Claire! I'm serious, you can't be here. You'll get sick." His voice sounded awful and was almost none existent.

She just waved her hand, brushing his comment to the side and said,

"Don't worry I'm current on all of my Vaccines…" she looked up suddenly from the counter where she was taking groceries out of bags and continued, "except for Hep. C., you don't have Hep. C. do you?" She had said it completely seriously but then winked at him.

"Claire!" he had tried to resist her.

"Quil. Get back in bed. I'm not going anywhere, not while you need me. So, get in bed before I push you there myself." She had raised her eyebrows at him and given him possibly the most stubborn look he had ever see on her face.

He had wanted to argue it some more but he was feeling weak enough that if she wanted to, she COULD push him right on to the bed. He just stood there, swaying slightly, and she quickly came back over to him and placed a steadying hand on his arm. She started to guide him back to bed and he complied only because he was sure that if he collapsed she would try to catch him and he knew his heavy frame would probably crush her smaller one. She settled him back on his bed and then ran to pick up his blanket from where it had fallen to the floor when she had pushed her bags on him.

"But, I'll always need you." He had said hoarsely.

"I know," she said with a soft smile and then, "shh, try not to talk, just rest."

She put the blanket back on him and tucked it around him, before adding another pillow under his head, she had patted his chest with her hand before going back into the kitchen. He just laid there feeling exhausted and achey but taking comfort from just listening to the sound of her movement. She came back to him a few minutes later with a mug in her hand that she sat on his bed sided table.

"Here, sit up for a sec." she said, while sitting down on the edge of the bed and putting her hands under his shoulders while helping to pull him into a sitting a position before piling pillows behind him to support him.

"Drink this," she said in a soft voice while handing him the mug. "It'll help your throat."

It was a mug of his favorite lemon tea. He didn't even know how she knew that, he didn't think he had ever told her. His throat hurt too much to talk anymore so he just complied and drank the tea. He wasn't paying attention when suddenly she was rubbing something cold all over his chest. He threw his arms up startled by her sudden attack and almost spilling the tea she had just given to him. She started laughing at his reaction. When he caught the minty eucalyptus smell of what she was rubbing on his chest, he had started to laugh too but it had felt like a tear in his throat and he stopped immediately.

"Drink your tea." She said firmly.

He went back to drinking the tea while she continued to rub a vapo rub on his chest. After a few sips of tea his throat felt well enough to hoarsely say with a smirk,

"Will you sing me _soft kitty_?"

She laughed at his remark before she bent down and picked up something off floor. "Look what I brought!" It was a boxed set of DVD seasons of _The Big Bang Theory_ "We're going to be stuck in her for awhile, Mister." She said with a sympathetic face.

Due to his unusual physiology (his unusually high body temperature, his metabolism, his large size) they were having to give him a massive amount of drugs, he was already taking two packs of antibiotics and would have to continue to take them for 9 more days. He was starting to feel drowsy, but Claire finished rubbing his chest and took his mug of tea from him and set it back on the nightstand before she grabbed his clean t-shirt from where she had set it on the floor and pulled it over his head, then helped guide his arms in, before moving the extra pillows away and settling him back into a lying position. She put her hand on his forehead and said,

"Go to sleep, Quil."

He immediately closed his eyes and replayed her soft voice, over and over in his head saying, _Go to sleep, Quil._

He could hear her moving around the apartment and found just the sound of her presence incredibly soothing. He was pretty sure that he heard her start the washing machine next to the front door before he fell asleep.

They had stayed that way for three days. She was out of school, so she just stayed with him, doing laundry and folding it on the bed next to him while they watched _Big Bang Theory_ episodes, making him soup and tea, and sleeping next to him in his bed at night.

He didn't even know what she had told her parents to get them to let her stay with him, but she never left. She would get up in the night and check his temperature every couple hours, he knew that she was keeping in contact with Jacob and that _Doctor_ Carlisle had given instructions to make sure his temperature didn't go over one-eleven, and the appropriate amounts of aspirin and ibuprofen to give to him to keep his fever down.

The first night he had slept terribly having night-terrors and delusions, all centering around Claire and her safety. She had just let him hold her and had stroked his face while soothing him.

The second day she had decided that it was time to make the cinnamon rolls. She had found the recipe in one of the old family photo albums he kept under his bed months ago, and had always wanted to try it. She had brought all the ingredients with her and had told him stories about the dramatics of her cheer camp the week before while she worked in the kitchen and he stayed in bed. She had LOVED them and Quil had thought she had been incredibly cute with her excitement over having made something that tasted 'that good!'.

Quil smile at the memory as he mixed up the dough. It had been years since he had made a batch but he used to help his grandmother make them every Sunday so he was familiar, and fortunately Claire had left all the ingredients from when he had watched her make them from his sick bed. That had been less than four months ago and yet he felt like so much had happened since then. They seemed to be in a different place now than they had ever been before and he wanted to fix that. He was hoping that this apology would be the start to getting _US_ back.

Forty minutes later the rolls were laid out on the pan to rise and Quil finally took a shower. He was filthy after his wolf run the night before and took an extra-long one. Quil had always felt that showering was the most human thing he could do. Whenever he went full-wolf-mode (that was what he called it in his mind) a shower seemed to be the only thing to get his mind to transition back to full human mode. He spent a full forty-five minutes in the shower before he ran out of hot water, and finally got out. He threw on a pair of boxer briefs and his favorite pair of dickies and then threw the cinnamon rolls in the oven. He would usually have called or texted Claire by now but after last night he figured giving her space before he came crawling back begging for forgiveness was probably his best bet.

He sat on the small sofa with his feet up on the coffee table and watched _Fresh Prince of Belair_ reruns. It was his favorite show to watch without Claire. He loved it, and had tried to watch it a few times with her but she just didn't get it. It was so nineties and she was just too young to appreciate it. It was incredibly nostalgic for Quil, he had loved it as a kid when it was still on the air and had always watched reruns in his teens. He still loved it as an adult, but every time he suggested watching it with Claire she would say something like, "If we're going to watch something with Will Smith, why don't we just watch _Independence Day_?" she would say it all innocently like he didn't know that she knew that was one of his favorites as well. At which point he would usually start tickling her as punishment for trying to subtly move him away from his show to one she wanted to watch. They always ended up watching whatever she wanted anyways, Quil had probably seen hundreds of episodes of _Project Runway_ and he could not care less about Tim Gunn or Heidi Klum.

He was just about to start singing along to the theme song when his phone pinged. He looked down to see a message from Claire.

We need to talk. Can you come over in twenty minutes?

 _Uh-oh_ he thought as his stomach dropped. 'need to talk' didn't sound good. The timer on the oven went off as he used the remote to turn off the tv, and he replied,

I'll be there.

Before he pulled the cinnamon rolls out of the oven. By this point he was basically starving so he just dumped the icing on and ate three while burning his tongue. He found a clean shirt while making a mental note to do his laundry later and then ate three more before putting the last two in a paper bag to take to Claire. Hmm, they had originally been for Claire…. She'd just have to appreciate that since the rest were gone.

He had to dig in his closet to find another pair of his vans since he had shredded his the night before, and then left to go find his Claire. As he got in his car he thought, _If Claire is REALLY mad, maybe I can bribe her to forgive me by agreeing to teach her to drive in the Camaro_. At least he had an ace up his sleeve whatever the situation was he was walking into.

He was there in less than five minutes and let himself into the house the same way he normally did. Jamie looked up from some random Disney channel show that he was watching and barely said, "Hey, Quil.". _Well he is definitely over whatever was bothering him yesterday._ thought Quil about his lack of enthusiasm.

"Hey bud. Where's your sister at?"

He just shrugged his shoulders and said,

"I dunno, I haven't seen her. Dad fed me breakfast today. What's that?" spying the bag of cinnamon rolls in Quil's hand.

"Something for Claire. I'm gonna go find her." he replied before Jamie got any ideas.

"Cool." Jamie replied half-heartedly with this attention back on the tv.

Quil went up the stairs and could hear the shower running in the bathroom that Claire shared with Jamie. He could tell she was shaving her legs because he could hear the scrape of the razor against her skin. Sometimes he creeped himself out with all of the personal details he could pick up on but then he would remind himself that it wasn't his fault he had super natural hearing and besides Claire never minded him knowing all of the personal details…... _or at least she didn't used to, what about now?_ He thought to himself as he went in her room.

He could hear her rinsing her hair for a few moments before she shut the water off and got out. He could tell she was brushing her teeth and then rubbing lotion on her…legs…... yeah it had to be her legs by the long smooth strokes she was doing. She finished quickly and came out of the bathroom, Quil wasn't paying attention to anything but the sound of her when she came in her room to find him waiting for her.

"Ah! Quil! You have got to quit doing that to me!" she said startled by him.

She was in just a towel with her long dark hair hanging over one shoulder still dripping wet. As soon as he saw her he felt drawn to her like a magnet. He quickly moved across the room to her as he noticed that her clean face looked red and blotchy. She had been crying. A LOT. And he knew it was his fault.

He didn't say anything, he just pulled her to his chest and held her close to him, getting his shirt pretty soaked in the process by her wet hair. He had started to notice that the more upset he got the more physical contact he seemed to needwith her to balance out. Just like on Friday, he had been so upset that he had yelled at her for the first time in years, and then she had kissed him…. maybe that was why he had responded so strongly…. He wanted that physical contact with her.

As he thought about their kiss from a few nights before, he suddenly realized that she was naked under the towel that she was holding against herself with one arm while wrapping the other arm around him reciprocating his embrace. His left forearm was pressed against the bare skin of her back above her towel. As soon as he realized that he pulled back from her and said,

"Yeah sorry, I just wanted to give you this." While holding up the bag of cinnamon rolls.

She took it from him in her free hand and then used her forearm to hold her towel up so that she could awkwardly use both hands to look in the bag.

"You made me cinnamon rolls?" she asked in a tender, surprised voice.

"Yeah, I needed to do something to make up for what I did last night."

"Quil!" she said all touched and tenderly.

He just smiled at her for a second pleased she seemed so happy with it but then said,

"I'm really sorry about last night, Claire. I promised that I would handle it and then I didn't, that's on me. I should never have let you see me like that and I'm sorry. It won't happen again. I promise." He said it all in one breath and then stopped to evaluate her reaction to it.

"Thanks, Quil, I really appreciate it."

Sweet Claire, always so willing to forgive him. They just stood there staring at each other for a few moments before he said,

"Well…... I'll be downstairs with Jamie when you're ready to talk about … whatever you wanted to talk about."

"Okay, thanks." She said with a smile as he walked past her and out the open door.

For about an hour he watched Disney with Jamie, feeling like he wanted to blow his brains out the entire time. He ended up just listening to Claire upstairs, it was unintentional at first, but then he was just so bored and she kept doing things he wasn't expecting that eventually he just gave up trying to tune her out and started following the sounds of her.

She had brushed her hair first and then blow dried it, instead of immediately getting dressed and letting it air dry. He had expected to hear her pull out sweat pants or leggings from her dresser but instead heard her riffling in her closet. A few minutes later he could hear her putting on makeup but it sounded like she had stayed in her room instead of going into the bathroom the way she usually did. It also seemed like she was using about twice as many makeup products as she usually did. She eventually finished her makeup and then started moving around her room. It took him a few moments to figure out what she was doing, but then he realized that the fabric sounds were her stripping her bed. She then went in to Jamie's room and grabbed the sheets off of his bed before taking them to the washer and throwing them all in a load together. Quil could even smell his favorite detergent that reminded him of the way she smelled when she opened the bottle. She went back and placed new sheets on both of the beds.

It had been about an hour at this point and Quil couldn't figure out why she hadn't come down yet. He could hear her pacing up and down in her room. She seemed to be working herself up to something. A few times she seemed to walk quickly to the door, then stop, then go back to pacing.

After about twenty minutes of this behavior, and figuring that what she was working herself up to might have something to do with what she wanted to talk to him about, he went back upstairs. He stopped outside her door, he could still hear her pacing.

Ignoring the feeling of dread that was starting to settle on him, he quietly tapped a knock on her door. He immediately heard her stop pacing and seemed to freeze for a moment before slowing walking to the door and opening it.

"Hi, can I come in?" He asked.

She nodded her head and walked over to her bed where she plopped on her back and grabbed a throw pillow, crossing her arms over top of it, crushing it to her chest and sighed deeply.

It was probably the most dramatic, teenaged thing he had ever seen Claire do. He came in and shut the door behind him, before following her over to her bed and lying down on his back right next to her, so that they were both staring up at the ceiling together instead of looking at each other.

"So…...?" He asked her calmly.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend." She seemed to blurt out.

Quil wasn't sure how he felt about this peace of information. He had been referring to Bennett as Claire's boyfriend for a while now, but mostly in his own head and in a derogatory sort of way, but he knew this was more serious than that. This was an official title. An official placement of him in her life. He mostly just felt nervous that this was indication of change coming. Change he was fairly sure he didn't want.

"So, it's official now." He pointed out.

"It's official." She confirmed

"How do you feel about that?" he asked while still staring at the ceiling.

"How do _you_ feel about it?" She asked intently.

"Why do my feelings matter here? You're the one dating him." He reasoned with her.

"Quil," she said a little exasperated, as she rolled onto her side to look at him. "You know I care about your feelings. I'm important to you. I know that."

He sighed and kept staring at the ceiling.

"I'm feeling like…... I don't want something to come between us." _Or someone._ he added in his mind.

She was silent for long enough that he had to roll over and looked at her. Her face was less than five inches in front of his and he was suddenly forcefully reminded of the kisses that they had shared two nights ago.

"I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen." She said noncommittally.

"What is it?" he asked confused by her tone.

" _I'm_ feeling like…...what you _really_ want is for things not to change." She said.

He thought for a second before responding,

"Is there something wrong with that?"

She hesitated and then said,

"I'm just not sure it's possible." He thought for a moment that she was referring to Friday night and that they couldn't go back to the way things were before they had kissed, but then she said, " _I_ have to change Quil. I need to move forward. We can't just be little Claire and sweet Quil forever."

He sighed and rolled back over to his back, not wanting to look at her while he asked,

"Am I holding you back, Claire?"

"Honestly?" she asked.

He just nodded knowing she was still staring at the side of his face, and feeling the same feelings of dread he had felt at her door.

"Only when you can't seem to let me grow." She confessed.

"And hedoesn't do that to you…." he said calmly.

"It's not a comparison, Quil." She told him.

"But… you feel like you can grow with him?" he clarified.

Silence. He turned his head back towards her, and looked at her expectantly.

She shrugged and then answered, "He pushes me."

Quil didn't like the sound of that. "And that's a good thing?" he asked concerned.

"It helps me grow." She confessed.

He just sighed. When did his sweet little Claire grow up into this beautiful young woman that was lying here next to him, expressing to him in clear, reasonable, terms, why he just wasn't enough for her anymore. He had heard her. he had accepted it (mostly because he didn't have a choice) and he just wanted to move on.

"Don't tell Leah, she might try to murder Bennett to make way for me." He said calmly.

Claire laughed and agreed, "Really though…... naw, I just think she wants to see everything work out together perfectly for us, so that she can believe in love again."

Quil was shocked by this astute observation into Leah's mind, where was she getting all of this wisdom from?

"How do you know that?" he asked confused.

She shrugged and said, "We talked about it yesterday, she wanted to know all about my opinion on why you all imprint."

"What did you tell her?" he asked her curiously. He suddenly realized he had never asked her what she thought about it.

"Just that it's all I've ever known, so I can't really compare it to anything else, but that I was lucky to have you."

He smiled at her. She hadn't chosen him and yet here she was accepting him as a welcome part into her life. He leaned forward the total of four inches and kissed the tip of her nose and said,

"No, Claire, _I'm_ lucky to have _you_."

"Are you sure?" she said it so quickly he wasn't sure if she had meant to say it or if it had just slipped out.

"Are you kidding? Of course." He said dumbstruck by her doubt.

She just closed her eyes and nodded.

"Why would you even ask that?" he said concerned.

She opened her eyes and stared straight into his for a moment before she said,

"It's just that…... if you hadn't imprinted on me when you did, you could be married by now…. have kids….a house….. gone to college…. the whole nine yards. You could have traveled, dated around if you wanted instead of spending so much of your life with me waiting – sorry, not waiting- but _with_ me while I grew up."

Quil was completely shocked. These thoughts had never even occurred to him, and they definitely didn't make him feel unlucky to have her. He wasn't sure how to even express to her his true feelings about it.

"Claire," he said and grabbed her face in his large hands, she was so small compared to him. "I have _never_ thought that. Not ever. Not once. I never wanted anythingbut you! And you have made me so happy! Just getting to be there. With you. For all of these years. It's meant _everything_ to me. I would _never_ trade that – _you_ – for _anything_."

His voice was hoarse by the time he finished and her eyes were spilling with tears. The moment felt so heated. He already had his hands on her face, just inches away. Seemingly without his permission they started to pull her face to meet his as he leaned into her.

Her eyes widen drastically and she jerked her face away from him at the same moment he realized what he had been about to do and sat straight up on her bed. She was still lying next to him, staring straight at the ceiling with shock on her face.

"Claire….I'm so-"

"I think you should go now, Quil." She interrupted him in a dead voice.

"Claire." He said feeling as shocked as she looked.

"No really, Quil. I think you should leave now…...I think we need some time apart."

He couldn't believe what he had just done. He had never meant to do it. He hadn't even thought to do it. Somehow her pull to him was just too strong and he had just _done_ it. He needed to explain to her what had happened.

"Claire, I never meant-" she cut him off again when she sat up and said.

"I really mean it, Quil. I think it's time we took a step back. I think _that_ just proved you can't be around me right now."

He couldn't compute what she was saying to him. What was she talking about? He just made a face at her of pure disbelieve.

"You would _never_ have done that three weeks ago, and now I have a boyfriend and it seems like everything is screaming at you to claim me as your territory. It's like you can't help it." She explained. She didn't even seem mad. Just completely certain. "I think you need to get away from me. Clear your head, check those wolf instincts."

"No, Claire…" He said completely aghast.

He wasn't sure what had just happened, but he was completely sure what he didn't need was to be away from her. He felt like it might crush him, and he _needed_ her to understand, he _needed_ her to see. But he was looking at her and she was staring right back at him and _not_ understanding, _not_ seeing. He could see the same stubborn, determined look on her face as the day she had barged into his apartment and insistent on nursing him back to health.

He felt like he was shattering as he said in a completely broken voice,

"Claire…. please…. don't" "I can't…." "I need…. we need." He wasn't sure what he was trying to say. He just knew that he _COULDN'T just leave_.

She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him as if looking at him was too painful for her. She drew in a deep breath and pulled her hands out from under his on her lap. He hadn't even realized that he had grabbed them. He could see the tears silently leaking out of the corners of her closed eyes as she said in a completely steady voice.

"Quil. Please. Just go."

He felt completely numb. He seemed to be trapped in his mind, viewing from the inside out, unable to control his own body as he saw himself stand up and walk out of her room before closing the door, walking down the stairs, and out to his car without looking back.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

 **Claire:**

Claire had never felt so normal before. She thought it to herself as she swung on the swing of the playground lazily. Macy was next to her and they were watching the pick-up basketball game that Bennett and Caleb were playing with some Quileute kids at the park. They kept calling bogus fouls on each other and Claire could see Bennett's good-natured laugh at Caleb's obvious flop after being charged by one of the Quileute boys he was defending. He looked up to catch her staring at him and smiled at her.

She loved it when he did that. Somehow it made her feel like she was flying and yet grounded completely into him. She smiled back at him when he winked at her and sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach. They had been together for months now and she still hadn't gotten over the affect he had on her. She hoped that she never would.

Macy had been less than thrilled when they had started dating after Homecoming, but Claire thought that Macy must have secretly known that Bennett had never been interested in her, so she had never really had a chance, and eventually accepted it with good graces. The fact that she had started dating one of Bennett's friends (Caleb) who was also on the football team (and a senior) only a month later greatly helped the situation.

Claire felt like the last few months had been a complete whirlwind. She had loved every minute she had spent with Bennett. For some ridiculous reason, kids at their high school acted like they were some sort of Chief Paloma High royalty. They both saw the insanity of it all, but Bennett treated it like a joke and kept her laughing when he would do a formal wave and sometimes a bow to kids who would literally stop walking and move to the side to let them pass undisturbed down the hall together. He was just so down to earth all of the time.

Claire hadn't seen Quil in almost four months. She had texted him on Thanksgiving and Christmas and sent her love. He had briefly responded with a Merry Christmas and hadn't even replied at Thanksgiving. She had missed this year's annual Quileute tribe bonfire for all the wolfs, their families, and tribal leaders. She hadn't missed one since her very first when she was two. But there was nothing she could do. She was with Bennett now.

She thought about Quil often, but she never spoke about him. She honestly didn't want to think about him. Any time she was with Bennett she felt completely happy. Like who she was, right then, was perfectly enough for him and she loved that. He seemed to completely accept her, not just that, he seemed to practically worship her, like he just couldn't believe he had been so lucky to have her.

But every once in a while, she would wake up in the middle of the night, crying and reaching for Quil and finding nothing but sobs to take his place. She had used the time apart to find who she really was. She felt as if he had always been there, completely surrounding her, and holding her tightly. Now he was gone and there was all of this empty space around her for her to fill. It was terrifying sometimes, but also elating to suddenly be exposed to so much air and light.

She was never lonely for long, after all she still had Jamie, who needed her, and her and Rachel were closer than they had ever been. Claire had actually read the manga that Rachel had leant her and really enjoyed it. They both read the series and would frequently discuss it. Rachel and Travis had even gone on a double date to the Christmas dance with her and Bennett and they had had a great time all together.

And of course, she had Bennett, they spent all of their free time together and he was just so cute and goofy he seemed to have Claire laughing constantly. Claire really appreciated that he had almost as little dating experience as she did. (He had had one girlfriend for two months in ninth grade and that was the extent of his experience) they seemed to be experiencing everything together for the first time. They were there, together, the same and on even footing. For Christmas he had taken her to a concert in Seattle and they had had an amazing time, but Claire's favorite part had been the two hours in the car each way just talking and laughing and being together.

She loved the way he kissed her. He wasn't one for causal kissing in passing. No hello or goodbye kisses but at least once a day he seemed to find a moment where they were undisturbed and then he would kiss her in a way that swept her off her feet and left her wanting more.

She knew that Quil wasn't permanently out of her life, she didn't even know if that was physically possible. But she wasn't sure she was ready yet to have him back in her life with his all-consuming need for her. She also couldn't see how she could have him in her life at the same time she was dating Bennett. It just didn't seem possible and she wasn't ready to say goodbye to Bennett, so she just tried her best to not think about Quil or the pain he might be in without her.

She could see the game winding down and got up off her swing to go meet Bennett on the court. Macy followed and immediately clobbered Caleb with a kiss that didn't seem appropriate for a public setting with children.

"Oh yikes!" Bennett said to Claire referencing the exchange happening about four feet from them. "You ready to go get ready?" he asked her.

Claire had a cheer competition that he was taking her to, so she wouldn't have to ride the bus. He had come to every one of her competitions since they had officially met in September. She actually seemed to do better knowing that he was in the crowd cheering for her. It was one of the last comps. of the season, and they stood a good chance for regionals, but Claire was getting exhausted of it and was fairly certain she wouldn't mind if they stopped with the regular season.

She loved cheer, but it had become grueling and even her body seemed to be tired. Her joints ached constantly, and she had gotten sick more than once already this season.

"Yup!" She answered with a smile as he slipped his hands in hers.

"You doing alright?" He asked sensing her preoccupation.

"Yeah…..I'm just…..tired." She said, describing her feelings as best she could.

He evaluated her for a minute before saying.

"I get it. You have end of season burn out. I get it by the end of basketball season every year."

She smiled, glad he understood what she was going through.

"Well let's just get you through your competition tonight and then we'll go out after!" He said kindly.

She did really like the idea, but was conflicted, she had been planning on spending time with Jamie after her competition.

"What if we take Jamie out for ice cream?" He continued.

She smiled at him. How did he know she was thinking about Jamie?

"That sounds great! Thanks Bennett!" she said before she leaned in quickly and kissed his cheek.

He seemed pleased with her show of affection as he said, "Let's get this show on the road! Your chauffer awaits and is not a patient man!" he was always goofy like that.

They said their goodbyes to Macy and Caleb and then headed to Claire's house, so that she could change and get her stuff. Claire had just finished changing her clothes in her room and was packing her bag, when Bennett snuck in and quickly said,

"Ooh thank goodness, I barely made it out of there alive."

"What are you talking about?" she asked already laughing at whatever was coming.

"Your mom! Her flirting is outrageous! Really, she can't keep her hands off me, Claire!" he said as she started laughing outrageously at the idea of her mom flirting with him.

"I'm serious!" he said in fake outrage. "I think she's in love with me, and I just don't want to come between you two like that! I made my escape before she could ask me anymore questions about how 'algebra 2 is going for me'. I mean really could she be any more obvious? She clearly wants me."

Claire didn't know where he got this stuff from, but he was definitely entertaining. She shook her head as she chuckled and finished packing her gym bag. He surprised her by coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Hey." She greeted him, as she placed her arms over his and snuggled into him. "You doing okay?" she asked as he suddenly seemed tense behind her.

"I'm great, that's the problem." He said in an unusually (for him) serious voice.

She turned in his arms to face him, so she could look up at him and ask, "What do you mean?"

"I…I love you, Claire." He said in the same serious voice as he looked down at her.

She hadn't expected him to say it, it wasn't exactly the picturesque moment for it (not that that mattered to her) but now that he had she was frozen as she evaluated how she felt about it. He wasn't the man whose arms she had thought she would be in while he confessed his love for her, but did that make his love any less valuable? Her heart warmed, and she felt incredibly secure as she looked up at him. She knew he meant it. That he wouldn't have said it unless he really did love her, and suddenly she was incredibly glad that he did love her.

"I love you too, Bennett." She smiled as she said it in a quiet voice.

His face broke into a new smile. One she had never seen before. It wasn't his biggest, goofiest smile, but instead it was a twisted, dimpled smile, one that she felt she had a sense of ownership over. This smile was just for her, and she loved it, almost as much as she loved him.

She was exhausted, and her body ached all over. She had barely landed her round-off-back-handspring, and her right arm had almost failed when she and Monique were catching Claudia after her double front twist. It had caused Claudia to twitch to the side a bit before her next lift into hold.

She didn't know what was wrong with her, and she was definitely worried that the squad would think she had hurt their chances of going on to regionals. Could end-of-season burn out really be the cause? She wasn't sure, but she was grateful that the squad had been supportive and encouraging towards her. They kept telling her to brush it off and that she would be better next time, but for some reason that only made her feel more nervous about it.

She just wanted to quit thinking about it. They had still scored well, and she just wanted to be out of her cheer mode for as long as she could before she had to put her game face back on and compete again next week.

Bennett came up to her, finding her in the hall outside of the locker rooms.

"Hey, Claire-bear, you ready to get out of here?"

That was all he said. He didn't mention the competition, or their placement, or her performance at all. And she was incredibly grateful. He seemed to know (maybe from experience) that the last thing she wanted to do right now, was relive it.

"Yes!" she said relieved and then quickly reached up to him and kissed him while she wrapped her arms around his neck, in the middle of the crowded hall.

He seemed surprised but definitely pleased by the public display of affection.

"Um, thanks." He said with a small smirk.

"Thank _you_!" she answered.

"For what?" he asked as he took her gym bag for her.

"For just being you." She said happily, accepting his hand that he was reaching towards her.

He raised his brows at her a few times and then said, "I am pretty awesome."

She laughed at his faux cockiness before he asked, "Should we go find Jamie? Your mom already put his extra-seat in my car so we're good to go."

"Let's do it!" she replied and then laughed when he raised their hands together in the air like they had just won some sort of grand price together.

They made their way back into the gym and quickly found her mom and Jamie.

"Hey, Jamie, you ready to go get some ice-cream?" she asked him.

Jamie just looked at the two of them together and then simply said, "No."

 _Uh-oh,_ Claire thought, this was _not_ typical Jamie behavior. He LOVED ice cream.

"Um, Bennett would you mind filling up my water bottle at the fountain real quick?" she asked.

"Sure, I'll be over by the water fountain when you're ready." He replied with understanding.

He gave her hand a squeeze and then quickly walked away with Claire's gym bag. Claire got down to Jamie's level so that they were face to face, and then asked him,

"Jamie, why don't you want ice-cream?

"I just don't want any." he replied without looking at her.

Claire looked up at her mom for a clue as to what was going on, but her mom just shrugged, clearly as confused by this as Claire.

"Come on, it'll be fun, we'll get some rocky-road!" She said enticingly.

"Will Quil be there?" he asked suddenly excited knowing that rocky-road was also Quil's favorite.

He hadn't asked about Quil in months. He was so young that the few months that Quil had been out of the picture had been enough for it to become his new normal, and his bringing Quil up now was a complete surprise to Claire. Jamie had seemed to have gotten over his initial hang up with Bennett and had bonded with him since they had started dating. Bennett had even come with Claire to almost every one of his little league games.

She tried to stay upbeat as she answered, "No. It'll just be you and me and Bennett. Won't that be fun?"

She hadn't ever explained to her parents what had happened that caused Quil to seemingly suddenly disappear from her life. And she didn't want to now.

"Why can't Quil come?" he was starting to whine.

Claire had already been feeling crappy about the competition up until Bennett had cheered her up, but this brought it all back plus the added weight of worry and guilt associated with Quil.

"He just can't, Jamie!" she said more sharply than she had meant to.

She stood up to see her mom looking at her alarmed by her reaction. Suddenly she just wanted nothing to do with the situation.

"Never mind." Claire said quickly before either of them could respond, "I'll see you guys at home."

And then walked away without giving them a chance to respond.

She knew that that had not been her most gracious moment, and she felt bad, but she just couldn't deal with it right now. She was doing her best to shake it off and not think about it before she got back to Bennett.

"Everything alright?" he asked as she made it to him, waiting by the door of the gym.

"Yeah, he just doesn't want to come, so…. how about date night instead? You want to go see the new Sandra Bullock movie?" she asked as cheerfully as she could.

"I was actually thinking we should see the one with Channing Tatum." He said seriously, immediately teasing her.

She laughed as he grabbed her hand and led her out to his car together. She was googling the nearest theater there in Treeport, and showtimes on her phone as he pulled out.

"What's the one with all of the guns and explosions and maybe Samuel L. Jackson?" she asked him as he stopped at the exit of the parking lot waiting for a bus to pass.

He laughed before he said, "I actually think you'll have to be more specific than-" _SMACK!_

The car was thrown forward after being smashed in from the back. It was a microsecond of pure silent motion and then…. _CRASH!_ as one of the buses that they had been waiting to pass in front of them, plowed into the passenger side of the car.

Claire's ears were ringing, and she couldn't see Bennett next to her with the way her head seemed to be pin. The airbag was deployed in front of her and was the only thing she seemed to be aware of. Her vision was going dark and she was losing consciousness and her last thought before she was pulled into the darkness was simply,

 _What if I die before I ever see Quil again?_

The next few hours were a complete blur to Claire. She had moments of consciousness in the ambulance. A Paramedic was shining a penlight in her eyes, she had asked "Where….is Bennett?" knowing she had been with him last and now was surrounded by strangers, but he had just talked over her, stating her heart rate, approximate age, and seeming to list off her injuries using some of the medical jargon she associated with her mom at work.

She had come to a full awareness when they had been pushing her gurney into the ER. She was completely strapped down to a board with her right arm strapped tightly to her body. There was a lot of commotion as at least three EMT's were pushing her into a chaotic Emergency Room and all talking to someone who seemed to be pulling her from the front of her head out of her eyeline.

She had an oxygen mask on her face, but she had tried to ask, "Where is Bennett?" with a weak voice.

Only one EMT, a young blonde woman with a kind face, had even bothered to look down at her, but she didn't seem to have understood.

"Where is Bennett?" she repeated a little stronger, as she tried to reach up her left arm and pull off the oxygen mask, but it was strapped down at the elbow and she couldn't reach her face.

"What?" the EMT had asked while reaching to move the mask aside.

"Where is MY _BOYFRIEND_!?" she yelled getting louder with each word. Why was no one taking her seriously?

"Was he the other kid in the car?" the EMT asked.

Claire tried to nod but her head was strapped to the board and she had suddenly realized that she was shaking uncontrollably.

"They took him in the other rig, but he seemed to be in good shape, he was conscious at the scene." She responded as they lifted her on the board from the gurney to an ER bed.

They all walked away then as a team of doctors and nurses came in to replace them and start poking and prodding her everywhere as they spoke overtop her to each other.

Bennett had been conscious. That was good. That was a good sign. He had been conscious. She just kept telling herself that as the shaking increased and her eyes started to fill with tears.

A kind nurse in teal scrubs leaned over her and said, "It's alright. You're okay. You're going to be fine. Try to calm down, alright?"

He was the only one talking to her, so she spoke directly to him,

"I need to find out what happened to my boyfriend. He was in the car with me. I need to know if he's okay."

He evaluated her for a moment and then said kindly, "Alright, I'll go find out what happened to your boyfriend, but only if you promise to try to calm down, alright?"

She gave a small tear-filled laugh and said, "Okay." Before a doctor immediately looked down at her and asked,

"Alright, Miss can you tell me your name?"

She was distracted by his penlight that he was shining in her eyes.

"Um Claire…. Claire Young." She answered after a moment.

"Good, good." He said confidently, "How old are you, Claire?"

"I'm…. I'm sixteen." She wasn't sure why it was taking quite so long for the answers to come to her.

"Okay," he said while feeling her temples and then the sides of her head with his hands. "Do you know where you are?"

"No….." she answered and then, "Well the hospital, but I don't know which one, are we at _OMC_? Is my mom here?"

Olympic Medical Center was the hospital in Port Angeles that her mom had privileges at. But that couldn't be right, her mom had been with Jamie at the competition.

"Good. I'm seeing good responses, and there are no noticeable spinal injuries so let's unstrap her while we do CT and a work up." He said to the other doctors and nurses before he spoke to her. "Claire, You're at Luke Presbyterian Hospital in Treeport. You were in a car accident. Your parents are on the way. They'll be here soon, but in the meantime were going to take you for a few scans and get you fixed up, alright?"

She didn't respond but she decided that she liked him. He seemed competent and she trusted him. Before he walked out of the room she asked,

"Wait. That nurse was going to find out what happened to my boyfriend."

"It looks like he is coming back now to let you know, I'm on my way to check on him right now, I'll take good care of him, I promise, Claire."

And then he left. A couple seconds later the nurse came back and started pushing Claire's bed back out into the ER from the exam room she had been placed in by the EMT's.

"Bennett Callahan? That's your boyfriend, right?" he asked in a rushed voice.

Claire's stomach dropped as she prepared to hear bad news, she just nodded now that they had unstrapped her from the board.

"The EMT's brought him here too, he is in that exam room back there that was right next yours." she felt a measure of relief knowing that he was actually there in the same ER so close to her. "He seems to have only minor injuries and has been insistently annoying the doctor's by saying he needs to be with you."

Claire actually laughed with relief. He was okay. Bennett was okay. He wanted to be there in the same room with her. He was okay.

"I'm Greg by the way. I'm the nurse assigned to your case and if the number of tests the doctors have ordered for you are any indicator we're going to be spending a lot of tonight together. What do you think, Claire, you want to be my date on this Saturday night?"

Claire was still so relieved that Bennett was okay she barely processed what he was saying but when she did she laughed in response before saying,

"Sounds like a plan, just as long as I leave in better shape than I showed up in!"

"Well we always like to send a girl home happy the next morning here at Luke Presbyterian." Was his cheeky response.

Claire just shook her head up at him from where she was lying on the bed he was wheeling her around on. She knew he was joking around to try to take her mind of her and Bennett's injuries and she still might have razed him for that comment but truthfully, she was grateful that he was willing to have a conversation with her that didn't center around injury or accident.

After that, it was scan after scan. Starting with a CT scan, and then an x-ray, then a CAT scan, and then an MRI just to be safe. Before her CAT scan, Claire's nurse Greg, came in to the small room off of the side of the room with the machine, and explained that he was there to help her out of her cheer uniform and into a hospital gown. She just looked up at him a little confused and asked,

"Isn't there a female nurse who can help me?"

He shrugged and said, "There is…. but we're at full capacity tonight and no one really has the time to help one of my patients when they're busy with their own."

He was around twenty-five and attractive not to mention he had jokingly made a comment about her being his date. She wasn't worried about him personally but that didn't mean that he wasn't pretty much the last person that Claire needed to see her naked right now.

"What about my mom? Isn't she here yet?" she asked.

"Sorry, it's patients only back here, plus she might unintentionally make an injury worse trying to get your clothes off." He responded before giving her a sympathetic look.

"But she's a doctor, so she'll know what not to do. She works at _OMC_ in Port Angeles." Claire explained.

"Does she have privileges here?" he asked.

Claire just shook her head. He seemed on the fence for a moment before he said,

"Okay, but this _has_ to be our little secret. I could actually get in trouble for this."

"I promise! It'll never leave this room." She told him quickly.

Ten minutes later he was back with her mom in tow.

"Claire!" her mom said relieved.

She hadn't been able to see any of her family yet. She had been stuck getting scanned relentlessly the entire time and they kept telling her that she could see her family and her boyfriend, once they were done treating her and she was safely resting in her room.

"Hey, Mom!" Claire tried to say in a tone that would let her know she was okay.

Her mom had way too much experience to actually touch her in the chance of doing more damage, but she smiled at her from right next to her bed that she was lying in with her arm still strapped to her chest. She had already overheard the radiologist say that it was broken in at least two places.

Claire heard Greg say, "I'm sure you already know how to do this Doctor Young, but…."

Then he continued on to give her detailed instructions for how to cut off what was left of Claire's bloody cheer uniform and carefully put the hospital gown on her before he left.

It was quiet for a few minutes as Claire's mom got to work cutting her clothes away in strategic places. When she had got through the first layer and was about to cut into Claire's neon green sports bra, Claire finally broke the silence by asking,

"Are you okay, mom?"

"Psh, of course. I'm a doctor. I see injuries all of the time…it's just different, when it's your own kid, is all." She was getting teary.

"I'm okay, Mom, really. I'm sorry for the scare though." Claire said trying to comfort her.

She smiled and nodded. Claire finally gathered her courage to ask the question that was plaguing her,

"Is Quil here?"

Her mom was just tying the back of the gown closed around Claire while she laid on her side on the bed.

"No..." she answered carefully.

"He's not?" Claire asked, shocked and hurt.

"I didn't tell him." Her mom explained.

"Why not?" Claire asked surprised. Sure, he hadn't been around the last few months but something as big as this he deserved to know.

"Because, I-" her mom started but then GregGre was gently knocking while opening the door. They were waiting to take Claire in to get her scan done.

"I'll see you later, Mom. But call Quil, he needs to know too." She said confidently as the nurse wheeled her out.

It took another forty-five minutes before they had finished the scan and finally put Claire in her room. They let her parent's come in at that point but said that Jamie couldn't, so it ended up being just her mom again while the same doctor who had questioned her when she had first gotten there came in and explained that he was a neurosurgeon and on her case. Finding out the she had a neurosurgeon on her case initially made her incredibly nervous until he explained that she only had a small concussion but no other damage to her brain, they were going to keep her over-night to monitor her, though.

Claire's mom had thanked him profusely, but he seemed to tune her out and look directly at Claire when she spoke sincerely to him,

"Thank you. For all of your help. I really appreciate it."

"No problem, Claire, get some rest and I'll be back in the morning to check on you." He had responded.

After that an ortho-surgeon came in to explain that her arm had been broken in two places. Claire had tiny stress fractures all over her body. Apparently through the cheer season she had been stressing her body so much that her bones were literally braking down. They weren't sure how much the accident had exasperated the fractures, but it _was_ clear that it wasn't the sole cause of the damage.

Her arm, gratefully, didn't require surgery, but they were going to have to re-break it to set it correctly. The ortho-surgeon said that they would give Claire something for her pain, but it seemed like it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. She then asked Claire's mom to leave the room before she began. Her mom began insisting that she was, herself, a doctor and that she needed to stay with "her Claire" until Claire quickly said,

"Mom! Just go! I don't want you here for this!" she was starting to get stressed herself about what was about to happen, and her mom wasn't helping.

Her mom was about to walk out the door to go wait in the hall, when Claire suddenly called out to her, "Wait! Can't Quil come in? I want him here."

Her mom responded quickly with,

"Oh honey, he's not here."

Claire immediately felt the hot tears pool in her eyes. How could he not be there? She needed him. Where was he? She just bit her lip to force herself to hold in her tears so that her mom wouldn't insist on staying and nodded at her without saying anything.

The moment when the doctor rebroke Claire's arm was the most painful experience of Claire's life. She screamed as hard as she could and then stuffed her left fist into her mouth when she realized that her mom would hear it, she couldn't stop the scream though.

The ortho-surgeon had given her a sympathetic smile, and a few minutes to rest before she began the plastering for the cast. When she was about halfway through, she said,

"Don't worry, someone will be in soon to stitch up your head."

Claire didn't even know that she had cut her head.

They had actually ended up sending in the resident-plastic surgeon to do her stitches. She had found that to be over the top, but she was flattered when the plastic-surgeon, a kind, attractive gentlemen in his upper-forties with slightly graying temples said,

"With a face as pretty as that, I don't trust anyone else to stitch you. It'll take a couple more stitches, but trust me, it'll be worth it, you won't have _any_ scares."

She had two cuts on her forehead and one on her right cheek from where the glass from her window had sliced her. The surgeon was impressively smooth and quick with his stitches, and within ten minutes was placing sterri-strips over them.

Her mom had left with her dad and Jamie an hour before. She had promised to come back and spend the night there with Claire, but Claire had felt that was ridiculous and unnecessary and that she should just come back in the morning when she was released.

So, Claire was on her own at this point. She had asked her mom before she left if Bennett could finally come in. Her mom told her that Bennett had insisted on seeing Claire for hours, but that they wouldn't let him near her while they were treating her. He had been questioned by the police about the accident, and then released from being a patient with only minor scrapes and bruises since the vast majority of the impact had been on Claire's side of the car. At that point the visiting hours were over, and his mom had insisted on taking him home. He had been beside himself, insisting that he needed to see Claire before he could leave, but her parents had promised that he could be there at her house when they brought her home the next morning and at that point he didn't have much of a choice but to surrender and leave with his mom.

The plastic-surgeon told her how lucky she had been to not have suffered more damage in the accident. She just smiled at him graciously but didn't want to talk about the accident. Every time she thought about it she wanted to cry. He told her that he would send in a nurse to wash the blood out of her hair before he left. Claire was relieved by this. She hadn't known there was blood in her hair but didn't like the prospect of sleeping in it.

True to his word, a gruff nurse came in a few minutes later and did wash Claire's hair in a bowl right there on the side of her bed. She was very no-none-sense and made no attempts at small talk. She finished quickly and left immediately. It wasn't the best wash her hair had ever had, but at least there wasn't blood in it anymore.

That night was terrible. Claire's head throbbed, and her arm ached. Every time she seemed to come close to falling asleep a nurse would come in and ask her questions to check her mental status. She kept finding herself wishing that Quil was there to hold her and keep away the images of the accident that kept flashing in her mind. She just couldn't understand how he wouldn't be there after her mom had called him. She knew she would need to question her mom in detail about the conversation she'd had with him but then ultimately felt like hearing his response would just feel like another rejection since he hadn't been bothered to come. Every time the thought came to her she did her best to push it out of her mind by thinking of different after-school activities her and Bennett could do. After all she would have a lot more free time now that she was officially done with cheer until next school year. There was no way that she would heal in time to come back this season. She was going to be in a cast for at least eight weeks and then have physical therapy after that.

The next morning her mom got there at eight with a pair of clean sweats that were bright blue and said _CPHS Cheerleading_ for Claire to wear home. She was groggy and feeling miserable while she got dressed and then her mom helped her braid her still damp hair. They wouldn't be able to be released before the neurosurgeon did his rounds and signed off on her and she was in a terrible mood, so she didn't mean it to slip out when she said grumpily,

"I can't believe Quil didn't come!"

Her mom seemed a little surprised and replied,

"I didn't call him, Claire."

"What!?" Claire asked shocked, "Why!?"

Her mom sighed and explained,

"After you snapped at Jamie last night when he asked about Quil, I was worried that something had happened between the two of you. I didn't think it was appropriate for him to be here after he had come on to you."

"Mom! Quil didn't come on to me! He would never do that!" Claire said immediately.

Her mom was standing behind the chair that Claire was sitting in while she braided her hair. She was silent as she finished and put a hair tie in to hold it in place. She then walked around until she was right in front of Claire and squatted all the way down until she was on Claire's level and asked,

"Are you sure, Claire? Are you sure he didn't try anything with you?"

"Yes, Mom." She said in a soft voice. "If he had, I would tell you."

"Then why has he been gone all of these months? He was _never_ away from you before."

Claire sighed deeply and then said softly,

"Because I asked him too."

"Why!?" her mom asked concerned.

"I don't know, Mom. All the reasons I asked him to stay away don't seem to make sense to me anymore."

She was tearing up now and her mom, being satisfied that Quil hadn't crossed a line, seemed to sense that it was a touchy-subject and let it drop. Claire spent the rest of her time in the hospital thinking,

 _He didn't know? How could something like this happen to me, and he just not know?_


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

 **Quil:**

 _Really, what's the point?_ Quil thought to himself for the hundred-thousandth time as he woke up to the alarm. He needed to get up and get down to work. He knew Mrs. Hernandez would be there in two hours to pick up her car and he had at least three hours of work left on it. But like with everything these days, he just couldn't make himself care about it.

Quil pulled himself out of bed and got dressed without bothering to shower. He made his way over to the kitchen to find something to eat. He opened the fridge to find nothing but a bag of coffee and an eighteen-count box of beer with 2 left in it. He sighed as he grabbed the coffee and started the coffee pot. He made a mental note that he needed to go shopping…and do laundry… _But really, what's the point?_

It seemed like all of his effort these days was strictly channeled into not thinking about Claire, but then he would just accidentally think about her anyways. She was just this inescapable part of him. There were times when all he wanted was to grab a knife from the block in the kitchen and literally carve out the pieces of himself that belonged to her, but then he would remember that she owned all of him, so it was pointless. He would have nothing left by the time he finished.

The last few months had been a daze. He was constantly changing his mind between deciding that he never wanted to be a wolf again since there was no point to not aging anymore and deciding that he wanted to escape his human life all together and stay wolf forever, after all, things did seem simpler in that form, but pain was also more fluid and didn't always compartmentalize very well as a wolf. He did feel a measure of guilt for his pack knowing that they had to literally feel his pain whenever they were sharing his mind. They had all gotten to the point where none of them would even be in their wolf-forms at the same time he was because it was just too painful. For a wolf there is no greater pain than the separation from their imprint.

He would spend days at a time doing nothing but working in the shop for a few hours and then going to work out. He had this idea that if he could get fit enough in his human form, it would somehow make it easier to leave his wolf form behind. Then he would come home, and eat take out before trying to consume enough alcohol to get him buzzed enough to actually sleep. He never did. He hadn't slept in months. He would just crash exhausted and inevitably wake up an hour later with the thoughts of _Claire!_ She was like a timed fire alarm in his mind. Impossible to ignore and on a constant reel. Just as he was about to relax and fall back to sleep she would go off in his head again. It was enough to make him want to blow his brains out, if only so he could get some sleep.

He knew that there was a part of his brain that could never rest because it seemed to be responsible for the imprint relationship. That was its job, maintain his imprint relationship, and it was setting off every alarm it possibly could because it was failing miserably.

He would at times manage to numb it. But that was it. There was no putting it to peace. He knew that he would be miserable until he had Claire in his life again, and if he never had her again then he would be miserable for the rest of his life (literally). He kept trying to remind himself that high school relationships don't last forever and that maybe there would be a point where they would break up and then, maybe then, she would take him back. And he would be there. In whatever capacity, she wanted. As long as she was there. He would be there for her. He didn't have a choice.

After Claire had asked him to leave he had been in shock for weeks. He knew he couldn't go back to her on his own, she had asked him to go, and if he came back it needed to be on her terms. He kept waiting for her to call him back to her though, the thoughts of her not wanting him around were just too painful for him to consider. He had waited day after day, week after week, and then it was her birthday. And she hadn't called him. She didn't want him there. He had never missed her birthday, not since he had met her. Thirteen birthdays he had spent with her, and then he had missed her sixteenth birthday. He remembered when she had been about fourteen it seemed like all she would talk about was her sixteenth birthday and what she wanted to do. She was going to have a sweet-sixteen and watch _Sixteen Candles_ …. or at least that was what she had wanted to do. He didn't get to know what she actually did, because he didn't get to be there. And that was the day the pain came.

He filled a mug of coffee and went down to the garage to start another pointless day. He thought about how he had actually ended up getting his GED in November. He had quit studying as soon as he could no longer study withClaire _,_ but it had been scheduled for months in advanced. He had no intention of actually taking the exam but that morning he had woken up and thought _Screw it_. It was incredibly painful showing up at Claire's high school to take the test and know that she wasn't there. He had actually caught her scent in the hall, mixed with hundreds of others from the day before. The questions on the exam had been surprisingly unpainful. They were the only thing that had ever reminded him of Claire and not hurt. They would make him smile every time he remembered studying whatever the question was asking, with Claire. _'No, Quil, remember the Pythagorean Theorum?'_ he would hear her say in his mind or, _'Quil, you can't forget that they'll probably try to trip you up with questions about the differences between third and first-person narrative and omniscient narrative.'_ Hearing her voice like that would make him smile. That was probably the only okay day he had had.

Looking back, he wasn't even sure what good getting his GED even did. It did not look like he would be going to college with Claire after all. In fact, _HE_ would probably be the one to end up going off to college together with her. _CRACK!_

He had crushed the mug in his hand unintentionally at the thought. _Great._ He thought sarcastically _. No food and now no coffee, just the start to another great day._ He pretty much always broke something when he thought about _him._ He couldn't even bring himself to _think_ his name. Quil blamed _him_ for his separation from Claire, after all before _he_ had come into the picture there had been no problems. It wasn't until _he_ had asked Claire to homecoming that things started to unravel.

Quil hated not being close to Claire. Not knowing what she was doing, how she was feeling. Not knowing what she was saying, what she was thinking. He hated not being able to see her every day. He HATED everything about being separated from her. _Stop_. He told himself. He would just break something else if he kept thinking about it. He had already had to replace his TV and he couldn't afford to keep this habit up of breaking things.

He actually finished with Mrs. Hernandez's car before she even got there fifteen minutes early. He had tried so hard to just not-think that he had becoming crazy focused and finished replacing her radiator in record time. It was past 12:30 pm and he was already debating if it was too soon to try to get buzzed. He decided to go to the gym instead. If he could just take control of his body, then maybe he could get control of his life and if he could stop being a wolf than maybe the effect of the wolf-imprint wouldn't be so strong anymore.

He had been working out so much the last few months that he was sure that if hadn't kept drinking so much beer then he would be in the best shape of his life, and that was saying something. He decided to run to the gym. He had started to really enjoy (as much as he could enjoy anything at this point) running in his human form. It was rhythmic, and he could push himself and that was something he could control. After Mrs. Hernandez left he headed back upstairs to his apartment where he threw on a pair of gym shorts with nothing else and grabbed the headphones and arm band for his phone before heading out on the six-mile run to the gym.

At about the half-way point of his run, he passed a woman in her mid-twenties running past in the other direction. She looked at him and his shirtless physique before raising her eyebrows and smiling at him clearly pleased with what she saw. He thought it was strange how in the last few months he had started to notice women noticing him again. He never used it. He just didn't see them, period. Now he saw them everywhere. The gym, the shop, the store. He saw how they looked at him, appreciating what he potentially had to offer, and he would notice them, check them out, notice their bodies for the first time in thirteen years and…. nothing. He couldn't feel anything about it. No attraction. Barely even appreciation. Just like looking at a piece of art he didn't really care about. He wished he could. He wished he could make himself feel some sort of attraction. He could have used any distraction he could get, no matter how temporary.

He got to the gym and did a full weight-lifting circuit. He had to do a ridiculously high number of sets to get a real work out in. It would draw too much attention if he used enough weight to push his super-natural strength. So instead he did a normal weight limit and had to do hundreds of sets. On the plus side, it took a lot longer, and getting through time was always a gift at this point. He finally finished about 6 hours after he got there. He hadn't spoken to a single person in that entire time, he hadn't even taken out his ear buds. He didn't bother to now. He just cleaned out his locker that had his wallet and keys in it and ran the six miles home.

When he got there forty minutes later (he had to run at a normal human pace to not draw attention to himself.) he quickly ordered take out and then got in the shower. He did nothing for forty minutes but just stand there in the shower letting the hot water hit him and hoping to numb that part of his brain that was ringing alarms. He heard someone coming up the stairs at that point and knowing his Chinese food must be here he got out, quickly threw on a pair of his boxer briefs and some gym shorts with nothing else. He was pretty sure he didn't even have any clean shirts anymore anyways.

He heard the knock on the door just as he finished pulling up his shorts. He grabbed his wallet off the night stand where he had thrown it and opened the door to find Kyle, his local delivery guy, with his food.

"Hey, Quil." He said. "You got company tonight?" he asked while looking at the box with a ridiculous amount of food in it.

"Nope." Quil said handing him the cash out of his wallet before taking the box, "Always just me."

"Are you on one of those high calorie, high impact diets?" he asked curiously.

"Something like that." Quil responded, really not wanting to get into it.

"Well whatever you're doing is clearly working for you, you need to give me your tips one of these days." He said with a tone of slight admiration.

"Yeah, Kyle, we'll have to do that sometime." He said mostly just so he would leave and then Quil could eat.

"Yeah, well see you probably tomorrow, Quil." Kyle said as he turned and walked back down the stairs.

Just as he was getting to the bottom of the stairs Leah came marching into the shop with a, "Quil! There you are! -What are _you_ looking at!?"

She had snapped at Kyle as he had checked her out as she walked past. He immediately scurried out and on his way.

Quil didn't respond to her, he just turned back into the apartment with his food and let the door shut behind him. She of course immediately followed and let herself in.

"Quil, can you seriously just be…..wow…" she said as she took a look around herself at his apartment.

A mess didn't begin to describe it. He had piles of dirty laundry around the washer and dryer by the front door. Every single dish he owned was piled either in the kitchen sink or overflowing onto the counter next to it, his bed wasn't made, and he hadn't even bothered to open the drapes in months.

"I would say you have really let yourself go but look at you." She said while gesturing to his chest.

"What?" he asked not getting it.

"You look insane, Quil. What are you doing, living at the gym? That would make sense because this place clearly isn't inhabitable." She explained.

"Do you want a beer?" he asked to change the subject but mostly just so that he could finally start drinking.

"Sure." She replied a little hesitantly.

He grabbed the last two out of the fridge before he placed the box of beer that was on the floor inside replacing the empty one.

"Here." He said as he tossed the can to her.

He turned to his box of food and starting opening cartons. She opened her can and took a sip before she came over and started investigating the food he was getting into. She didn't say anything, she just grabbed a plastic fork that had come in the box and started poking around a box of Lo Mein before watching Quil drain his entire can of beer in one pull. He tossed the can toward the overflowing garbage. He grabbed three more out of the fridge and set them on the counter before grabbing a carton of Crab Rangoon and asking in a monotone voice,

"so, what are you doing here?"

They hadn't seen each other in weeks. They would text each other every Sunday to work out a schedule for the week and then he would run his shifts alone now, because no one could stand to do it with him.

"…I…" she seemed to be watching him. "I came to check on you. I texted you a couple times tonight and you never responded."

He just shrugged, he hadn't even noticed the messages. He opened his second beer and drained it in another pull.

"…. Are you doing alright, Quil?" she asked in a scared voice

"Yup." He replied as he chucked it at the garbage and opened his next can.

"You don't seem to be…handling things well." She said. But she looked down and started eating more food.

"What are ya gonna do." He said as he drained another one and finally started to feel slightly numb.

He was glad she seemed willing to drop it. He started eating finally, he normally would have kicked her out by now, but he realized he hadn't actually been around another person in weeks and he wanted her to stay, he just didn't want her to talk about it.

"I like the beard." She said randomly.

"What?" he asked rubbing his neck and chin.

It was only about a half an inch long, he hadn't meant to grow it. He had just kind of quit shaving now that Claire was no longer around to care if he did or not.

"I've never seen you with a beard. It looks good." She said.

"Thanks. I use to shave…." He responded.

"And now….?" She asked.

"I don't." he answered simply before draining another beer. It was the last of the ones he had pulled out of the fridge, "You wanna another beer?" he asked her as he turned to grab a few more.

"No thanks, I'm still working on mine." She replied quietly.

He went to pull three more cans out of the fridge, but his arm caught on the edge of the box. When he pulled his arm out the box came with it and smashed on the kitchen floor. At least two cans cracked holes in them and started to spray beer everywhere while the box crumbled, and cans started to roll in all directions.

"Damn." Quil remarked without emotion.

"Here."

He looked up to see Leah as she grabbed his wet towel that he had thrown on his bed after his shower and came into the kitchen to help mop up the beer at the same time he bent down and started picking up cans.

"Thanks," he said to her and then, "Op, sorry."

He had smacked his shoulder into hers on accident when she was bending forward mopping up the floor and had he been leaning towards her to pick up a stray can that was rolling away from her.

"Ow!" she said and then looked up into his face inches from hers and froze.

He noticed her freeze and stopped to look at her. That was when he noticed her breathing that suddenly turned shallow, and her throat as she swallowed. He knew that he was just starting to get buzzed, but something else was growing on him. A feeling was overcoming him, something he hadn't felt in years, something he had wanted to feel for the past few months and simply hadn't. Without thinking about it, he leaned into her and kissed her. Hard.

She responded instantly, dropping the towel and putting one of her hands on his face, in his beard. Her other hand she placed on his bare chest, where she slowly ran it down to his abs before resting it on his hip. That was the point where he dropped whatever he was holding in his hands (he couldn't remember anymore) and reached to grab her around the waist, yanking her violently to him. She complied by using her hold on his waist to pull his hip to meet hers and then used the connection to wrap her legs tightly around his waist. He stood, taking her with him without breaking the hold his mouth had on hers and before he all but slammed her up against the fridge. He broke his face away from her only to yank her t-shirt up over her head to reveal a lacy baby pink bra underneath.

The typical timing in the imprint part of his brain recognized the hour mark and started ringing its usual Claire alarm again. But it suddenly went quiet for the first time in months once Leah start kissing down his neck and onto his chest, and he quickly recognized the chance for a distraction. Not just a distraction, but the chance to feel something, anything, besides pain again and he jumped at it. She pulled her face back up to his and he attacked it, kissing her lips and into her mouth, then down her chin, onto her neck and just above her collarbone as he settled his hands under her ass and backed away from the fridge carrying her with him as he moved over to the bed. She pulled his face back up to hers before she kissed him hungrily. He eagerly matched her enthusiasm as he bent down towards the mattress, taking her with him and never breaking away from her kiss.

She was lying on her back on his bed in just her jeans and lacy bra with Quil hovering just over top of her. He finally broke her kiss and moved his lips to start on her neck just below her ear. She moaned softly in response and all he could hear was her rapid breathing in his ear as he reached down and unbuttoned the top of her jeans to pull open the zipper before he heard the door open. Quil pulled his face back from Leah's neck to look up at the unwelcome intruder.

"Claire!?" he asked shocked.

 **Claire:**

The day that Claire's mom took her home from the hospital was exhausting. It had taken about three hours to actually get her released. Then an hour to get home between traffic and having to stop at the pharmacy to pick up the pain-killers that Claire was already wanting to take. Between that, the trauma she had been through, plus the lack of rest she had received at the hospital, she was definitely ready to be left alone in her room to crash and process what had happened to her without an audience. But when they pulled up to the house her mom immediately began,

"So, I had better prepare you now."

"Prepare me for what?" Claire asked slightly irritably.

"Well, Bennett wasn't the only person who wanted to be here when you got home."

Claire thought about that for a moment before she asked,

"How many people are in there?"

"I'm not sure, Honey. Definitely a few. Dad was texting me, but I haven't checked since the pharmacy."

Claire sighed and looked down at herself. She was wearing the cheerleading sweat suit her mom had found for her. Her mom had only remembered to bring her a bra because Claire had reminded her to the night before. Somehow all she had found was a neon green bra that was bedazzled…. It wasn't even a real bra, it was part of a four piece costume from a jazz performance she had done with her dance team in 7th grade and was at least a cup size too small….She had no idea where her mom had even found it, it had to have been in the back of her closet somewhere and not in her dresser drawer where she had at least 6 bras that would have worked. And her mom hadn't even brought her underwear. She was still wearing this stupid pair of mesh granny panties they had given to her at the hospital. It came up past her belly button and she had to shove them all the way back down to her hips so that they weren't hanging out over the low waist of her sweat pants. They were bunched up all weird just under the elastic waistband. Her mom hadn't brought her a tank top or a t-shirt. Just the zip-front hoodie and nothing but a bedazzled jazz bra to wear underneath it. Claire had zipped it up as much as she could, but her bulky cast pulled at the right arm of the hoodie and if she zipped it all the way, it would pull up at the bottom of the hoodie and show at least four to five inches of her (albeit trim) waist that had some bruising on her right side from the door of the car and any of the offending mesh panties that had managed to sneak back out of her pants. If she left it unzipped down to the middle, you could definitely see the entire right strap and top half of bedazzled green bra. While getting dressed in the bathroom of her hospital room she had just settled for somewhere in the middle and given up. Thankfully the strap of her sling covered some of her exposed shoulder but there wasn't anything left to cover the bruising over her right hip.

 _I think, I left my gym bag at Quil's place. Maybe we can run over, and I can find some clothes before we go in._ She thought to herself, before, _No. That's not right. Must be my stupid concussion._ She hadn't been to Quil's place in months. Since the night she had kissed him. Plus, her gym bag had been in the trunk of Bennett's car when they had been hit from behind first. She would probably never even see the thing again.

In the passenger side of her mom's car Claire flipped down the visor and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She just groaned as she looked at her frizzed out braid and her face…. Her face looked like a zombie in a horror movie. She had her three sets of stitches and the sterri-strips that the doctor had placed over them were now bloody and slightly brown. Bruising had started to appear in random places on her skin. She had a huge purple bruise on the right side of her jaw that looked like she had taken a punch in a boxing match, plus she had large dark circles under her eyes from sheer exhaustion.

"You were just in a car wreck, Claire. Everyone knows that." Her mom said, witnessing her scrutinize her slightly gory appearance.

"That doesn't mean I have to look like one." She muttered under her breath as she got out of the car.

She had major feelings of anxiety and apprehension as she made her way to the front door. She didn't know what to expect but she knew she didn't want a large audience to her current pain. She took a deep breath before she opened the door.

She walked in to find no less than fifteen people standing around talking to each other as they waited for her. There was Sam and Emily plus their three kids, Leah and Seth (without Tara but with both of the twins in tow), Rachel with Travis, Macy who had brought Caleb and in the back were her dad with Jamie and Bennett.

It was silent for a second while everyone realized she had walked in and then suddenly she was mobbed with people saying things like "Oh, Claire!" in sympathetic voices and softly touching her injured arm and face.

She spent the next fifteen minutes making her way through the crowd, doing her best to be gracious as she tried to awkwardly return hugs with just her left arm and answer questions about the accident. Every time she thought about how she felt like a side show, she kept reminding herself that all these people were only here out of concern for her. Finally, she made it through the small crowd to the kitchen where her dad, Jamie and Bennett had been holding back while kids screamed and ran around them, and babies cried while people talked over them. Jamie didn't say anything, he just ran up and hugged her legs and waist for a second before running off with the Uley boys. Her dad came up to her next and gave her a soft hug, and a kissed on her hairline before he smiled at her and said, "Good to have you home, Claire-bear,"

"Thanks, dad." She said with a smile as he walked into the family room to talk with Sam.

Finally, she was semi-alone in the back of the kitchen with Bennett. She had never seen him look as upset as he did when he looked her up and down taking in the extent of all her injuries. He had a slice on his right cheek that was stitched up along with a deep, four-inch-long one on his right forearm, accompanied by a large bruise. That was all of the injuries she could see from her quick appraisal of him.

"Claire!" he said in a soft desperate voice.

"Hey!" She said in a concern as she ran up to him and immediately hugged him as close to herself as she could with her left arm around him and her right arm in the way. "It's okay! We're okay now."

Her eyes were starting to fill with tears. This was the first time she had seen him since before they were hit. He wrapped his arms around her and kept putting his hand on the back of her head and running it down her hair as he said in a choked voice,

"Claire, I've _never_ been so scared! After we were hit, I was pinned under the steering wheel and you wouldn't wake up!"

She could feel him shaking all over while reliving it for her. She didn't want to think about it. She just wanted to stand there holding each other like they would never let go.

"I'm sorry they wouldn't let you see me at the hospital last night." She said with a soft voice into his chest, letting his t-shirt absorb any of the moisture that had managed to escape from her eyes.

"Hah," he scoffed. "Me too! Did your parents tell you that the hospital called security on me when I almost punched an orderly that wouldn't let me past to see you?"

"What!?" She asked shocked, "No!"

"That's when my mom made me leave, and it's why your parents said I had to wait until you came home. No one thought it was a good idea for me to go back to the hospital this morning." He explained.

"Wow." She said, shocked that he would do so much trying to get to her side. "I wish they would have let you pass to see me." She told him sincerely.

"Me too." He sighed and held her tighter to himself until she said, "Ow." when it put pressure on her broken arm. He immediately let her go and pulled back until he only had his hand on her left arm and wasn't touching her anywhere else.

"Claire," he said while staring directly into her eyes, "I. Am. Soo. _Sorry."_

He sounded broken. It broke her heart to see him this way, killing himself over her.

"It wasn't your fault! The accident. It wasn't your fault. You know that, right!?" She asked concerned.

He shrugged and said, "That's what your dad kept telling me all morning, but…. I was driving, Claire, and you got hurt. I don't know how I'll ever get past that."

She immediately pulled him back into a hug and said softly into his chest, "You will, because I still love you, no matter what."

He laughed, and asked, "You sure about that?"

She just nodded against him.

"Well, _I'll always_ love you, Claire." He told her honestly.

Claire couldn't believe it had been only twenty-four hours since he had stood in her room and held her while he told her that he loved her for the first time.

Caleb called Bennett over at that point saying that he _had_ to see this play from the game that was on in the family room.

"It's okay. Go, I'll be right here." She said while he was still holding her. He patted her back as he said, "I'll be right back."

He pulled back, grabbed her chin in his hand as softly and tenderly as he could, then incredibly gently placed his lips against hers for a full second and then pulled back and walked into the family room.

It was the sweetest kiss that she had ever had. She smiled at her sweet Bennett as he walked away. She really did love that boy, he seemed to have swept in and stolen her heart in just a few quick months.

She turned and got a glass of water awkwardly with her left hand. She was feeling surprisingly thirsty. She had just drained the glass when her mom made her way to her from talking with Emily and Leah. She was carrying the small bag from the pharmacy.

"You ready for some pain-killers?" She asked Claire who just nodded in response.

Her mom took her glass and refilled it before she handed it to her and opened the pill canister handing Claire two pills.

"Alright, Honey. You can have fifteen more minutes with everyone and then you need to go lay down." Her mom said in her most doctorly voice.

"'Kay, Mom, sounds good." All she wanted to do was lie down.

As her mom walked back toward Emily and Leah, who were each holding Blake and Kelly, Claire looked around the room and tried to figure out what it was that was bothering her. She felt oddly dissatisfied, as if something were missing. Right as Jamie ran by shouting "Pew, Pew, Pew!" while pretending to fire some sort of laser gun at Jonah Uley who was chasing him, Claire realized what was bothering her, what it was that was missing.

Quil wasn't here.

 ***Authors note***

 **To anyone who has taken time out of their lives to read a full eight chapters of my story, thank you! I have hardcore fallen in love with the characters of Quil and Claire and having the opportunity to share them is beyond exciting for me! I wanted to apologize that this chapter is on the shorter side and leaves you hanging! I'll have chapter 9 up tomorrow (if you are still willing to keep reading that is!) I actually have all of Imprintation finish. At this point it's just going through chapter by chapter and revising and editing (which, we all know my editing skills could use some work! Even with my very best attempts I fully know that it's rough!) so I plan to add a new chapter at least once a day. So, if you're a fan waiting for more (I can dream right?) then check back often for another chapter or two! Again, thank you for reading and if you are one of the few incredibly sweet people who left a review, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU! Xoxo**


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

The next day was Monday and Claire decided she needed another day to try to recover before she had to go back to school and face the world, not to mention her squad and coach.

It had seemed like a good idea in the morning when she was tired and groggy on pain killers but by half way through the morning Claire felt like she was going stir-crazy. There was nothing on daytime tv and she missed Bennett like crazy. She just wanted to go back to normal life where he would do things like surprise her in English class by suddenly grabbing her hand under the desk and miss taking an entire class worth of notes because he would just rather hold her hand. Instead, she was stuck as an invalid at home, alone and not getting to see him until tomorrow because he had basketball practice after school.

Her giant cast went almost all the way to her shoulder and was making her slightly insane. She felt like she was having phantom pains of just needing to use her right arm and not being able to. The cast was bulky and uncomfortable, and the sling chaffed at her neck and shoulder.

She sat down at the table in the kitchen to try to work on all the homework she had missed doing over the weekend but found it incredibly slow and frustrating to only be able to use her left hand. She couldn't even write her name and turning the pages on her text books was slow and awkward. She just gave up with a huff after an hour. Her thoughts kept ending up back around to Quil and it was starting to frustrate her.

Over the past twenty-four hours she had begun to feel increasingly awkward about the fact that she still hadn't told him about the accident. Now that the immediate danger was past and she was treated and healing, it seemed a little weird to call him just to inform him of the traumatic event but then she felt that he still deserved to know. She knew that he would _want_ to know if something had happened to her, but she just didn't know how to go about it so that he could.

It wasn't like after all of these months of quiet between them she could just call him, tell him what happened, then hang up and go back to radio silence. She knew that she had been missing him in her life with more intensity lately, but she still didn't know if she could fit him into her life, not with Bennett, besides even without Bennett, having Quil not in her life had truly allowed her to grow and mature these last few months and she wasn't sure she wanted to feel stifled again. She couldn't think of a solution, so she gave up on that too. She ate a microwave burrito, took some pain pills and then went to take a nap.

The next day she decided to go back to school since the day before had been so pointless and so she could be with Bennett again. It started to seem like a bad idea from the very beginning. In the morning her mom had to help her wrap her cast in a garbage bag and cellophane so that it wouldn't get wet in the shower. Then she got stuck and Rachel had to help her out of her shirt. She finally made it into the shower to find everything a lot more difficult than she had expected. Washing her hair with just her left hand was challenging and in the process of washing out the shampoo Claire found that there was still a large amount of blood hidden in her dark hair. She was disgusted to think that it was Tuesday and it had been in there since Saturday. When she was finally done in the shower and getting dressed, slowly and painfully, she realized she couldn't even hook her bra closed with only one left hand and had to embarrassedly ask Rachel to hook it for her.

Rachel took pity on her then. She helped her put her jeans and cotton V-neck t-shirt on. Then she blow-dried and curled her hair for her. Claire suspected that Rachel may have felt she would need the confidence of knowing that her hair looked good if she was going to make it through the day. At that point Rachel had given her a smile and a sympathetic, "Good luck!" before running out the door because Travis was waiting to drive her to school.

Claire then had to decide how to do her make up. She would have liked to pile it on to cover all the bruising, but she still had her stitches in. Her mom had cleaned them the night before and placed clean sterri-strips over them to keep the wound clean while they healed. She couldn't risk getting makeup inside the cuts, besides there was no way that you could hide the sterri-strips with makeup anyways.

She would have liked to do a simple bold red lip. She thought that would draw attention away from her injuries without trying to cover them, but she only had her left hand and she was worried at some point during the school day it would get messed up and she wouldn't be able to touch it up properly. So, she ended up only being able to do a simple eye makeup look. She just applied a champagne color eye shadow with a winged liner and mascara (which was interesting trying to apply with her left hand). She was able to apply some concealer to the bags under her eyes and she was surprised at what a difference that made in helping her look young and fresh again and not like she worked in a haunted house in a Target parking lot.

At the last second, while staring at her face in the mirror she said, "Screw it!" and then took the time to painstakingly apply a bright red liquid lipstick with her left hand. When she was finished she was very pleased with the effect. She looked classy and young and bright, and it definitely took some of the attention off her injuries. She grabbed a tube of regular lipstick that was almost the same color and threw it in her backpack for touch ups. It wouldn't last long but would be easy to reapply when needed.

She then threw on her ballet flats (since she couldn't tie her shoes) and had her dad finally take her to school where she walked into her Algebra Two class twenty minutes late. Thankfully Bennett was in that class with her. When she walked in EVERYONE turned around just to stare at her. She completely froze, shocked from the unexpected attention but then Bennett spoke in a loud voice,

"Over here, Claire! I saved you a seat."

The teacher who had also been staring at Claire, finally got back to the lesson without commenting on her tardiness. Claire was so thankful that Bennett had managed to get the attention away from her. Well mostly… At least three kids were still staring at her as she sat next to her boyfriend and slid down in her chair as far as she could, trying to hide.

Bennett had just given her his signature goofy smile and brightly said. "Hi!" As soon as she was situated.

She gave him a smile back. He always seemed to warm her heart, even on her bad days. "Hi!" she replied happily.

"You look nice." He said still smiling at her.

"Thanks." She said it sincerely knowing that he had meant it but rolled her eyes a little since she felt that her injuries were by far the most noticeable part of her appearance.

She spent the rest of the day with kids gawking at her in the halls or else asking her inappropriately detailed and specific questions about the accident like, "Did you think you were going to die?" or "Were you mad at Bennett after you got hit?". She finally made it through the school day, mostly because of Bennett. He kept her laughing and carried her backpack and books to all of her classes, even the ones he wasn't in. But then when school ended she realized she didn't have cheer practice anymore and had made no arrangements to get home from school.

She had her driver's license now, but she didn't have a car with her, and she couldn't drive while her right arm was in the full-length cast. Bennett couldn't take her home because he had practice right after school still and his car had been totaled in the accident. Both of her parents would still be at work and she had missed the bus since she had never needed to take it before. Her first instinct was to call Quil and ask him to come get her. But then she remembered that she hadn't spoken to him since he had tried to kiss her in her bedroom after she told him she was officially dating Bennett. Plus, she didn't have a cell phone anymore anyways.

Since she had been holding up her phone in her right hand when they were in the accident the air bag had deployed into her arm, breaking it and shattering her phone. Someone had found it ten feet from the car. Her dad had gone on Sunday to get her a replacement one, but they didn't have the phone in stock. The store had ordered it, but it still wouldn't be there for a few more days.

Standing at her locker, alone, biting her lip she tried to think of what to do. Finally, she thought, _Rachel, Rachel is my best bet._ Sometimes Rachel stayed late after school to work on art projects. Claire made her way to the art room to see if by some small miracle Rachel was still there.

Rachel was there, and told Claire that Travis was going to be taking her home after he made up a test he had missed, and that she could come with them. Claire had to sit around the art room waiting for an hour until they took her home. Apart from the pain in her arm she didn't mind having to wait since she was just thankful to have a way to get home.

The next day was pretty much exactly the same. Claire had decided that she would just have to settle for wearing her favorite sundresses (even though it was January) with her rain jacket, and ballet flats and bold lip makeup looks with her hair flat down and in natural waves for at least the next four to eight weeks because that was all she could do for herself without any help. Bennett still carried her books and Rachel and Travis gave her a ride home again.

Thursday was the first time anything different happened. School was basically the same as the rest of the week but that afternoon she went down to La Push. She hadn't been there in over eighteen months. So many of her memories from her childhood were tied up here, and they all centered around Quil.

She had told Emily over a week ago that she would babysit that afternoon. After the accident Emily had tried to cancel, worried that Claire couldn't handle it with her injuries but Claire had insisted. Sam and Emily had three kids; Sam Junior who was eleven, Sarah who was eight, and Jonah who was six. Their kids were old enough that they just needed to be supervised and they were well behaved so Claire was sure that she could handle it.

Her mom had driven her down to La Push and then dropped her off before going to run errands in Port Angeles. Sam and Emily were going to look at new houses. They were definitely squished all together in their adorable cottage and needed something with more space but didn't want to take the kids with them while they house-hunted. Claire had only been there for an hour when they came back unexpectedly and explained that the real estate agent hadn't shown up. Claire had promised the Uley kids the week before that she would decorate cookies with them when she was there but now couldn't with only one arm. The kids were pretty disappointed about it so when Emily and Sam came back early Emily decided to make the cookies and frosting for Claire so that they could still do it with the kids.

After an hour of non-stop frosting and sprinkles Emily made the kids go outside with Sam to run the sugar off. She and Claire were alone in the kitchen frosting the rest of the cookies when Emily asked in her sweet sincere voice,

"So, how's it going with you, Claire?"

"Going alright. I can't wait to get my stitches out next week." She replied.

"No, I meant, how are things going with your Quil?" Emily clarified.

Claire was surprised by her bluntness but tried not to be defensive when she replied in an honest voice,

"I don't know, I haven't spoken to him in four months."

Emily was obviously shocked by this information but was always tactful, and responded kindly,

"That must be painful. For both of you."

Claire just shrugged, not wanting to talk about her pain.

"How can you be away from him, Claire? Doesn't it make you uncomfortable having the imprint always call to you?" Emily asked while prodding for more information.

Claire had never heard it described this way but found it fitting. Not very many people truly understood an imprint relationship, really only those who were in them could understand the power of it. Emily was really the only role model that Claire had that actually understood it.

"I have Bennett now." Claire replied, it didn't fully answer Emily's question, but it was the best she could do to explain.

"Well what does Quil have?" Emily asked gently.

Claire couldn't answer. She just stared down at the cookie she was supposed to be frosting in her shaking hand as the tears silently dripped down her face and landed on her sling.

"You know when Sam first imprinted on me, he was in love with Leah…" Emily started to say. Of course, Claire knew, everyone in the wolves' circle knew their story. "…Well, I had only met him one time, and as the boy that my cousin was desperately in love with, I mean they had already dated for a few years, and Leah was hearing wedding bells. And then suddenly he had just dumped her and was all over me, I mean he wouldn't leave me alone." Emily explained with a laugh before continuing, "I tried to resist him for as long as I could. He had broken my cousins heart. He had taken someone I loved and crushed them. I didn't want to have anything to do with him."

"So, what changed for you?" asked Claire.

"Well eventually, seeing his pain in not being with me outweighed everything else. I couldn't feel anything else, just his need for me. It took a lot of sorting out, but we were _supposed_ to be together. It was the right thing, so everything else worked itself out so that we could be." She finished right as Sarah came running in crying and covered in mud.

They could hear Sam yelling at Jonah something about not being allowed to play with the hose from around the corner of the house through the open door.

Claire continued to think about Emily's words the rest of the time she was at their house and then the whole car ride home. She fell asleep thinking about them.

The next morning Claire woke up with the twisted, sick feeling she got in her gut any time she was truly upset about something. The last time she had felt it so strongly was when she had yanked her hands out of Quil's and told him to leave.

She couldn't figure out what it was stemming from. All morning, as she got dressed and ready for school, as her dad dropped her off and as she sat in Algebra Two next to Bennett, she couldn't figure out what the cause of the feeling was.

It wasn't until her second period Home Ec. class that she realized what it was. Major Geraldy had passed out papers for a pop-quiz on baking ingredients and Claire had written her name and the date at the top of her paper. January 18th. It was January 18th.

It was Quil's birthday.

She immediately started shaking. She was glad that for the pop quiz all she had to do was circle the correct answers and that she could blame her shaky circles on her left hand.

She could hear Emily's voice in her head asking, _"Well what does Quil have?"_

No wonder she felt so sick. She spent the rest of school shaking periodically and blaming her injuries when people asked her about it.

After school Bennett took her home in his mom's car. He had to leave that night to fly back to Ohio to stay the next few days with his dad. His parent's custody agreement was that he had to spend three days with his dad in Cleveland once every two months.

Bennett hated it. He was going to be eighteen in less than six months and didn't feel that it was even appropriate for there to be a custody agreement since he should just be allowed to stay with who he wanted, but it was court mandated so every two months he would pack up for a weekend and fly to Ohio.

Those weekends were always the worst for Claire. Without Bennett there, all of these feelings of guilt and worry for Quil would seep into Claire's mind. She usually tried so hard not to think about Quil but with a long weekend of no Bennett to distract her, he would inevitably come to the forefront of her mind.

She and Bennett were in her room. They were supposed to be doing homework together to get ahead for the weekend, but he had to leave in an hour so that his mom could drive him to the airport in Seattle and he could make his red-eye flight in time. So really, they were just making out while sitting with their books in front of them on the floor.

Claire pulled back with a sigh of frustration. She had just gone to pull her right arm up to touch his face when her cast had stopped her.

"Stupid broken arm." She said frustrated.

He laughed and said, "That's alright. We should stop anyways before you get me too wound up and I refuse to leave and then miss my flight."

They had talked about their relationship. Their physical relationship, that is. They decided that they were still young and needed to take things slowly before they ended up rushing to do something neither of them were ready for. Claire had had a lot of confusing feelings about Quil and his potential future role in her life when they had talked about it.

She just sighed again and said, "I wish you didn't have to go."

She normally wouldn't have said anything to make it harder for him to leave, but that day had been filled with such emotional turmoil that she couldn't seem to help but express her feelings at this point.

"I know. Me too." He sighed as he started kissing her again before he pulled her down so that she was lying next to him on the floor while kissing him softly.

After a few moments she pulled away. She looked up at the ceiling as she laid there breathing and trying to slow her heart rate. Bennett just put his face next to hers and she closed her eyes while he whispered in her ear.

"I will _ALWAYS_ love you, Claire Young. There will _never_ be anyone else, only you."

She just laid there in shock. She wanted to analyze what that would mean for her, what that could potentially mean for her future. But she knew that that would ruin this _perfect_ moment. So instead, she just laid there next to him and basked in his love for her.

He had to leave twenty minutes later, and Claire was embarrassed when she couldn't keep a few tears from falling before he left. He thought it was adorable and kissed her cheek right there in front of her dad before he said, "Goodbye, Claire, I'll see you soon."

She spent the next few hours pacing in her room. Since the moment that Bennett had left her heart had been racing. She just didn't know what to do anymore. It was Quil's _birthday_ , how could she be so heartless as to not acknowledge that? But Bennett had just told her that she would always be the only one for him. What did that mean for her future? Would she be with Bennett forever, and if she was what would that mean for Quil? She couldn't see a scenario where that worked out well and she kept hearing Emily's voice in her mind say,

" _I tried to resist him for as long as I could"_ and _"Well what does Quil have?"_

The guilt and worry were starting to eat her alive. She started pacing faster and faster until finally there was a knock on the door and Rachel opened it to say,

"Hey, you okay? It sounds like you have a ring of bunny races going on in here."

Claire just brushed her aside with her hand and quickly said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

She was about to resume her pacing when she noticed that Rachel was putting earrings in her ears and she was wearing dark lipstick. "Are you going somewhere?" she asked curiously. It was after nine pm.

"Yeah, I'm going out with Travis. Why? Do you need me to stay home?" Rachel asked.

Claire had forgotten that it was Friday night.

"Oh no, go have fun."

She went back to pacing but suddenly had an idea.

"Hey, do you think you guys could give me a ride somewhere?"

"Sure, where do you want to go?" asked Rachel curiously.

"Quil's place." Claire said confidently.

Rachel seemed shocked and confused but said,

"Alright. Are you ready to go now?"

"Yes. Let's go!" Claire said wanting to go as soon as possible so that she wouldn't lose her courage.

She grabbed her purse and ran out ahead of Rachel. She threw her shoes back on by the door and walked out as she heard Emily's voice saying in her mind,

" _We were SUPPOSED to be together. It was the right thing, so everything else worked itself out."_

It took less than ten minutes from the time that Claire decide to go see Quil for her to be pulling up in front of the garage in the back of Travis' car. She quickly got out and said thanks before they drove away. She stood there for a second staring at the building she hadn't see in months. The last time she had been there was the night that he had let her kiss him, her first kiss, all those months ago. She couldn't believe how much she had felt like she had changed since then. She could see the light coming out from the sides of the drapes on the windows from his apartment upstairs. She didn't even know what she was going to say to him…. maybe just "Happy Birthday"? She knew he deserved more of an explanation, but she didn't have one. She just knew that she needed to make things right with him and everything else would work itself out. Right? If she had faith, like Emily, it would all work out.

She took a deep breath and let herself in through the open side door of the shop. Her heart was pounding as she climbed the stairs. She seemed to be moving slower than usual but she couldn't make herself move any faster while she was so overcome with nerves. She reached the top of the stairs and wanted to knock on the door while she pushed it opened, but the door knob was on the right side of the door and her right arm was still strapped to her body with her cast and sling, so she just had to settle for awkwardly turning it with her left hand as she pushed it opened and said a gentle,

"Quil?"

And then she saw it.

Him. Her. Them.

He was on top of her about to get into her pants. Literally, he was just unzipping her pants. Quil was on top of Leah, unzipping her jeans to reveal a set of lacy pink panties that matched her bra. He looked up at Claire when he heard her open the door.

"Claire!?"

Hearing his voice saying her name for the first time in so many months sent a thousand memories shooting through her mind. She fixated on one for just a micro-second. _She had been maybe four, they were playing hide and seek in the yard at his mom's house. He was crouched next to a lawn chair that was supposed to be 'base' and had his eyes closed. He was counting while she was supposed to be hiding, instead she crept up behind him and put her small hands around his head and over his eyes and said, 'Guess who!', and then he had said 'Claire!?'_ He had said it in almost exactly the same way. Except that day his surprise had been pretend. Today that shock on his face was definitely real.

She could feel her face frozen with her eyebrows stuck as high as they would go. And then it came. The anger that had cleared her mind. She couldn't believe that she had been so worried about him. He was clearly getting all the birthday wishes he could want tonight.

"Ha!" She scoffed before saying calmly but sarcastically, "Sorry for the interruption."

She immediately turned around to leave. As she let the door slam close behind her she could hear Quil yell,

"Claire!"

She just marched down the stairs without looking back. She was going to get _OUT_ of there. This had clearly been a mistake. Emily was wrong, she didn't need Quil in her life and he _clearly_ didn't need her in his.

"Claire! Wait!" he yelled at her from the top of the stairs while pulling a shirt on over his head.

She was already at the bottom and was making her way towards her exit; the side door.

"Nope. Not in this life time." She muttered quietly to herself while looking down at herself, and suddenly she hated what she was wearing.

She had worn her favorite black cotton floral sundress with ballet flats, and her hair was only brushed into a side part with the front pulled back out of her face with a bobby pin. It was all she could manage with her left arm. It was cute. She had even paired it with a mauve purple matte lip. She had liked it this morning. Now she felt that everything about this look screamed things like "innocent", "vulnerable", "cute".

She wished that she was wearing her dark skinny jeans. She always felt like she looked hot in those. And her Nikes, she could _run_ in those if she wanted to, like she did want to, right now.

"Claire, hold up! Let me explain!" he said in a pleading voice.

"You don't owe me any explanations, Quil." She said in a surprisingly calm voice. _Maybe I CAN play this off as cool, calm, and powerful_. she thought to herself before she continued, "It's not my business who you sleep with- No wait! That's not right. You _used_ to sleep with me. It's not my business who you have _sex_ with." _Then again, maybe I can't…_

She was starting to show just how upset she was, she could feel herself shaking as she walked toward the door.

"Claire, wait!" he said catching up to her right before she reached the door.

He grabbed the top of her right arm above her cast to stop her so that he could come around to face her. She jerked her arm out of his hand, but because of the cast and sling she had to use her whole body to do it, and it _hurt_!

" _Ahh_!" she gasped quietly in pain as she rubbed her right shoulder, she felt like she had dislocated something. She knew logically that she hadn't because of the cast and since her shoulder was still in socket. It just hurt a lot.

" _Claire!_ What _happened_ to you!?" Quil asked clearly shocked after getting a good look at her and seeing her injuries for the first time.

She had no desire to tell him. He didn't need to know things about her anymore, but she could see he wasn't going to let her go and just leave, so she said matter-of-factly,

"Cheer injury."

After all the breaks in her arm wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't from the stress fractures caused by cheerleading.

At that point, Leah caught up to them. She had managed to button her jeans back together and pull on her white t-shirt that was wet with something that smelled like alcohol, making half of her look like she was trying to win a wet t-shirt contest. The fact that Claire could still see her pink bra through it did not help her feelings about the whole situation.

"Claire!" She chastised in a shocked voice. "You were in an accident!"

"You were in an accident!?" Quil asked shocked and upset.

"Yeah, I was, and your _girlfriend_ here knows all about it." Claire said not wanting to interact with either of them.

She was trying to get past Quil and through the door so that she could get out of there. But he was physically blocking her path. He had his arm stretched out around to the left side of her but wasn't touching her since she had hurt herself jerking away from him before. She could see he wasn't going to let her go. Not this time. And she was trying to figure out her best exit strategy when Leah said,

"Claire. It wasn't what you think. It was all my fault, just let-" but Claire cut her off, rounding on her and looking one of them in the eyes for the first time since she had made shocked eye contact with Quil when she walked in the door.

"Really, Leah!? Because I _THINK_ you were about to have sex with Quil. So why don't you explain to me what it really was then."

She knew that Quil had always thought of her as a child, but Leah she _thought_ had seen her as an equal. So, what? Did she think she was just stupid? That she didn't recognize what she saw with her own eyes? It was incredibly patronizing to be told that she would understand if they could just explain it to her. She needed to get out of there. She was shaking worse than ever and the tears were moments away. She could feel it, and she needed to get out, with her pride intact, before she completely broke down.

"Claire-" Quil said in a soft, hurt voice, as if hearing her say it out loud was physically painful for him.

"Honestly, Claire…." Leah started but faded off when they heard the howl of a wolf cut through the night air. The howl that could only mean a wolf was crying for help.

Claire was confused. She didn't recognize whose howl it was. She had been part of the packs inner circle for so long that she could usually recognize their unique calls to one another. She couldn't place this one and yet there was something painfully familiar about it.

As soon as they heard it, Quil and Leah immediately looked at each other with shock written on their faces, making alarmed eye contact for one short second before Quil said to her in a voice ringing with authority,

"Go! Now!"

She instantly ran out the side door Quil had been blocking Claire from leaving through while pulling off her wet shirt as she went.

 _Great, more of Leah stripping!_ Claire thought as she ran off without looking back.

"Claire, go upstairs, lock the door-" Quil had started to say but Claire cut across him.

"No! I'm _not_ staying here!"

"CLAIRE!"

In all her life she had never seen Quil look so intense. She knew in that moment that this went beyond what she had walked in on. This was about that howl. The only reason a wolf would howl was if he needed help. There was only one reason a wolf would need help; a vampire.

"Go upstairs. Lock the door. Stay there until I come back."

She just nodded silently.

"Promise me." He said intensely, "Promise me you won't leave until I come back."

"I promise." She said defensively as she turned away from him to head back upstairs. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to face him as she said in an angry voice,

"You had _better_ come back to me, Quil Ateara."

He just smiled before he took off his shirt and threw it on the floor of the garage as he ran out the side door.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Claire slowly made herself walk back up the stairs towards Quil's apartment. With every step she took she couldn't help but feel how much she didn't want to go back in there. But she also couldn't help but feel scared after what had just happened, so she did what Quil had told her to. She listed it as a check list in her mind.

 _Go back upstairs._

She made it back upstairs. Check.

 _Lock the door._

She turned the deadbolt. Check.

 _And wait for me to come back_.

That was where she got stuck. There was nothing to do now but walk into the middle of the last place on earth she wanted to be and hug her left arm around herself, as she looked around.

The place was filthy. It looked like a mix of equal parts nasty motel, a raccoon nest, and that he and Leah had been having a rave before they decided to get busy.

She stayed in the middle of the floor, holding herself for maybe five minutes before it became clear that she needed to do something with herself. She was filled with nervous energy, and Quil's place was so nasty that she didn't even want to touch the walls. She started with the laundry. There was a large pile of t-shirts that all smelled like beer, but the again, the entire apartment smelled like beer. She took the whole pile in her left arm and shoved it in the machine with some detergent. That felt so good, being productive and whirling around leaving cleanliness behind her, that she decided to move on into the kitchen. There was spilled beer everywhere and unopened cans all over the floor. She put all the cans in a pile next to the fridge and then used the already soaked towel to mop up the excess liquid. She dropped the towel with the rest of the dirty laundry before grabbing the steam mop she had bought Quil for Valentine's Day last year (it had been an inside joke) and quickly mopped up the floor.

Once the floor was dry she took what looked like the evidence of Leah and Quil's date night and packed the Chinese food away in the box it came in. She had to open the fridge first and then precariously balance the box in her left arm before turning to slide it in onto the top shelf of the fridge. When she looked in the fridge for the first time, she was shocked to see it stocked with tons of beer….and nothing else…. Yikes. In her entire life, she had only seen Quil drink alcohol a handful of times. She had spent the night here at least a dozen times over the years, sometimes unexpectedly, and she had never found any alcohol here before. Between that and the giant mess that his entire apartment was in, she was starting to think that maybe he hadn't been so great that he could just have casual sex with Leah no problem, like she had first thought when she got there. There was a tiny voice in the back of her mind that was whispering, _Maybe there was another reason_. She shook her head. She honestly didn't want to think about it. They were in crisis mode. That was why she was here. She didn't want to, she _couldn't_ deal with this right now.

She would stay here at Quil's place until everything was okay and then she would leave to deal with this however she wanted…. probably by falling apart and crying. Until then, there was plenty for her to do here.

She shut the fridge and turned toward the sink. Yikes again. She went to unload the dishwasher, figuring that that was the reason he hadn't done the dishes yet. Nope, it was completely empty. In fact, she was pretty sure she could see a cobweb in the back corner of it.

She spent the next two hours working on the dishes. It took a long time since there was so many, and because she could only use her left arm. In the middle of doing the dishes she went and took the load of shirts out of the washer and put it into the dryer, and then replaced it with a load of his darks, before going back and returning to the dishes.

She tried her best to only think about what she was doing at the time, but her mind would inevitably wander back to what she had seen when she had walked in. She would never have guessed how much it hurt her it see it. She knew that Quil wasn't a virgin… she had known for as long as she had known what a virgin was. Quil had been trying to impress as many girls as he could before he had met her. But that was the point. She thought it had all been before he had met her. Now she was having these doubts. Had he been sleeping with women this whole time? She had let him sleep with her in her bed so many times! And she had slept in his bed! Was he having sex with women in the same bed he was letting her sleep in? On the same sheets!? Obviously, he was, because she had just seen him about to have sex on this bed, with these sheets. Was it happening for all of those years? Was it just since she had kicked him out of her life? Was it multiple women? Was it just Leah? Was he seeing her? How long had they been together? Had they started sleeping together before Claire had seen Leah at her house on Sunday after the accident?

She was feeling hurt and stupid and lied to and betrayed. Quil was a huge part of the reason she had decided to wait and hold on to her virginity and now he was having sex with Leah. It made her shake just thinking about it. She felt like every time she had ever seen them together, every time they had ever nitpicked at each other and she had been the one to keep the peace, was a huge giant lie. Obviously they could get along fine together when they wanted to.

She kept reasoning with herself that she had been the one to push him away. That she was the one who had a boyfriend. That he had every right to date or hook up with whoever he wanted. They weren't even in each other's lives anymore so she had no right to be upset by what she had seen….

But she couldn't get the image of them out of her head. The way Quil had his face buried in her neck, the way Leah's hands had been on his chest claiming him with her fingers, the way Quil's hands had been undoing her jeans eager for more action, the way Leah had her knees wrapped around him with her legs bent upwards and her feet on the mattress to give her more traction as she arched her back up towards him.

Each image was like a snapshot of pain flashing across her brain, over and over again. There was one thing she knew for certain, she would never be able to go back to a time when she hadn't seen it. It would be burned into her brain, forever tinting the image of both of them for her.

She refused to let herself cry. Not here, not in this place that had used to be special for her. Right here in this kitchen Claire had kissed him. She almost cried just at that thought. Now this spot was ruined for her. After all, what is one sweet kiss compared to at least one night of passion with Leah. She decided that she would simply wait her time out here until this crisis had past and then she and Quil would go back to living separate lives being with separate people.

She hated being in his apartment now, but she didn't have a choice, she had to be here. So, she channeled her energy into cleaning. Once she finished the dishes she cleaned the counters, then she took all of the garbage through the entire apartment and put it by the front door since she couldn't leave to take it out. Then she took the load of shirts out of the dryer and put the darks in and started a load of whites in the machine. Then she vacuumed. Then she folded the shirts. Then she folded the darks. Then she put everything away in his dresser while hating the fact that she knew where everything went. And after all of that he still hadn't come back.

She normally would have washed his towels and sheets but she couldn't even bring herself to look at his bed that she used to share with him, and she wasn't even going to try to touch it. Eventually she ran out of things to do. She could have cleaned the bathroom, but it was honestly disgusting and she didn't have to go in there so she figured she would leave that as his problem.

She went to turn on the tv to try to distract herself when she noticed it was a new tv she hadn't seen before. She had noticed there was a lot of new little things she had never seen here before. A new alarm clock, a new coffee pot, now a new tv. She wondered if he had developed a shopping addiction in the last few months. She started pacing in front of the tv while it played _Fresh Prince of Bel-Air_ reruns in front of her. She knew that Quil loved this show but she just didn't get it. She didn't even find it funny. She just paced in front of it getting more and more nervous as she did.

It was past 12:30, why wasn't he back yet? Was something wrong? Something must have gone wrong, why else would he still not be back yet? Was someone hurt? Was he? Finally, she felt like he must be toying with her and she grabbed her purse and unlocked the door before she thought, _What if he isn't toying with me? What if there is something out there?_ She figured that even if he was somehow messing with her, he did live here and would have to be back, so she should wait to see him. Even if she couldn't look him in the eye. Ever again.

She left her purse on her shoulder but went back to pacing, she picked up the remote again in her left hand but didn't bother doing anything with it. She just walked back and forth as Will Smith did goofy crap in the nineties. She felt so betrayed and she knew that it might be slightly unreasonable but she had just spent so _many_ years of her life living with the pressure of thinking that they were _supposed_ to be together, that they were _meant_ for each other. If Bennett hadn't asked her out she doubted that she would have ever even looked at another man out of loyalty to Quil. Even through the last few months of being with Bennett, a future with Quil had always been in the back of her mind affecting every step forward she took with her relationship.

Quil had dated when he was her age. Heck, he had even slept around when he was sixteen. It had never bothered her, she had always been willing to look past it. She had just assumed that he would lend her the same curtesy. That he could wait for her to have at least one dating experience, that he would give that to her. Apparently, it had been too much to ask. Apparently, the second she had left him alone he had needed to find something to fill _ALL_ of the voids in his life.

After about five more minutes of her pacing and stewing on their relationship (or now lack there of) the door finally opened. She spun around mid-pace to see him walking through the door without a shirt on, it seemed to be in his hands and it seemed to have blood on it.

"Where have you been!?" she started immediately, "Is everyone okay!?"

He nodded tiredly, "Everyone is fine…..did you clean in here!?" he asked shocked and looked up at her.

She was surprised to realize that she must have grown. She didn't have to look up so high to make eye contact with him. That and that his chest was ridiculously cut…. What was that about? He had always been in good shape so why did he suddenly look like a black and white, airbrushed, and photoshopped picture of deeply cut muscle? Not that it mattered, it was clearly for another women's sake.

"Yeah…" She said like it was obvious, "I couldn't just sit around for three and a half hours, Quil. What happened?"

He smiled down at her like he thought she was cute and for the first time in her life instead of enjoying it, she found it incredibly condescending.

"Quil! What happened!? Is everyone alright? Did someone get hurt? Was there a vampire? Was there a fight? Who called for help?"

She didn't want to be here, it was late and she was supposed to have taken a pain pill two hours ago that she had missed while being here, and she was only staying long enough to get answers.

"Everyone is fine, no there wasn't a vampire." He answered with a sigh suddenly not looking at her.

"Okay. So, what happened?" she asked anxiously. Why wasn't he just giving her answers already?

He took a deep breath and said, "Here let me get dressed and then we can talk. Why don't you sit down? Did you eat?"

She was getting seriously annoyed now.

"I don't want to talk to you, Quil. Just tell me what happened, so I can go."

He seemed shocked for a second and then said, "Okay, I promise I'll tell you what happened. Just sit down and let me get dressed."

"There. In your dresser, I put clean shirts in your dresser. Now tell me what happened." She responded without moving from her spot in the middle of the floor.

He grabbed a shirt from the drawer she had indicated and threw it on before saying, "Okay, first of all no one is hurt. But you are going to need to calm down so that I can tell you what happened."

"I'm calm." She said immediately.

"Claire. You've had a long night, you should sit down and res-"

"Quil! Stop patronizing me! You have ten seconds to tell me what happened or I am walking out that door and I'm _not_ coming back." She replied as she took a step to move around him to the door.

He seemed a little panicked that she might leave when he said quickly,

"Someone phased."

"Is that supposed to be an explanation?" she asked getting more annoyed.

"No. Someone phased for the first time, a brand-new wolf. That was who was howling. It wasn't a call for help so much as a cry of panic." He explained to her.

She was completely stunned for a full minute before she said,

"What!? I thought there were no new wolves? I thought that the vampires left and the Quileutes stopped turning?"

"So did we." He said blowing out a breath before sitting on the edge of the bed in front of her and leaning forward to put his elbows and weight on his knees.

"Why? Why would that happen?" she asked completely stunned.

"We don't know." He said with his face in his hands, "We think it might be Renesme. That her presence when she comes might be enough to set the gene off. That or the fact that Leah and I are still phasing. It's possible that as long as we refuse to give up our wolf, that new wolves will keep phasing just to form a pack around us."

She was stunned by all of this. It was shocking information but she felt like there must be something else, something she was missing. Why would Quil not be able to make eye contact with her while telling her this? And then suddenly she was terrified as she asked in a quiet voice,

"Who is it?"

"What?" Quil asked confused at her direction.

"Who is it? Who is the wolf, Quil?" she was starting to feel panicked now. She couldn't seem to get enough air. She thought she might be having a panic attack.

Quil stood back up and came towards her but she just backed away from him.

"Claire." He said in a hurt little voice when she refused to let him comfort her with his touch.

"Who is it, Quil?"

He just shook his head.

"WHO IS IT, QUIL!?" she yelled at him. He finally looked up at her and said,

"Bennett Callahan. Bennett Callahan is the new wolf!"

And then she threw the remote at him. She hadn't meant to. She didn't even know she still had it in her hand. He dodged it of course but it smashed into a bunch of pieces when it hit the wall behind him and landed behind the washer. She was surprised by the accuracy of her throw, especially with her left hand. It would have hit him smack in the face if he hadn't dodged it. It must be because she threw it so hard. As hard as she could.

She just stood there for a moment staring at Quil, shocked at what she had just done. And then she was moving. She was past him before he even realized what she was doing.

"Claire. Wait!" he said shocked.

"I have to go." She said in a rush as she got to the door.

He quickly walked the two feet to her and grabbed her left arm.

"Don't touch me, Quil!" she snapped at him.

"You CAN'T leave, Claire" he said to her.

"I have to go find him." She said mostly to herself, Quil still had his hand on her arm.

"You can't." he told her firmly but she wasn't listening.

She tried to use her right hand in her cast to brush his hand off her.

"Claire, listen to me! You _can't_ go to him!" he said emphatically.

"I know how to handle a wolf, Quil. Now let me go. I need to be with him!" she spoke quickly and agitatedly at him as she finally looked up at him before looking back at the door she was trying to leave through.

She was starting to panic about how freaked out he must be. About the things he would be hearing in the other wolves' heads. About her. About everything. She needed to be there, to explain to him, to help him. He needed her.

"You _can't_ , Claire!" he said to her again, pulling her away from the door slowly while she dug in her feet trying to hold her ground.

"CLAIRE! You can't be with him! Ever again!" he yelled finally cutting through her panicked attempt to get back to Bennett.

That stopped her cold. She froze so quickly he dropped his hand.

"What?" she asked completely shocked. She didn't understand what he meant, or at least she didn't want to compute it.

"You and Bennett. You can never be together again. It's over for you two." He explained quickly but slightly sympathetically.

"What!?" she said again in a broken voice. She was already starting to cry, her body was catching up before her mind was and it was already reacting.

"You…. He… He can't be with you anymore, not now that he is one of the wolves." He said in a softer voice.

"Wh-why n-not?" she was starting to sob. She thought she knew, but she needed to hear him say it.

"Because Claire. You're _my_ imprint. Not his. A wolf can never be with one of his brother's imprint. It goes against all of the wolf laws of nature." He said as he tried to explain to her, "It's the reason Collin never talks to you. He's had the hots for you since you were thirteen, but in the wolf mind, you _ARE_ mine. You could never belong to anyone else. Ever."

Claire was so shocked that she even stopped crying. She had never known about Collin. She just thought he was a little weird, now she thought he was just creepy being into her since she was thirteen. That was just kind of gross, even if he was younger than Quil was.

And then the truth of it started to hit her. Bennett and she would never be together again. For forever. There was no going back. He would be a wolf for the rest of…forever, if he wanted….and she would be another wolf's imprint for the rest of her life. And then she heard his voice in her mind from the last time she saw him, _"Goodbye, Claire, I'll see you soon."_

And suddenly she was collapsing on the floor right there where she stood a few feet away from the door, in the spot that Quil had managed to drag her to. And she was sobbing. She used her lone left hand to cover her face as she sobbed. She had never sobbed like that before, it was almost scary. Like a wounded animal, she heaved her sobs, almost without tears.

After a couple of moments Quil came to her on the floor. He sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her while he placed his chin on top of her head and held her while she completely broke down. After a few moments, she gathered just enough control of her sobs, to whisper to him,

"How could you do this?"

 **Quil:**

He just sat there, holding her while she moaned in pain for hours. The fact that she was even letting him hold her after what she had seen earlier that evening was proof of exactly how much pain she was in. And to make it even worse, he knew that Leah was in a similar position with Bennett, trying to comfort him as she explained to him again that yesterday Claire had been his girlfriend and as of now he could never be with her again.

Quil had had no idea that Bennett cared so much for Claire. Almost as much as he did, but it was different, in Bennett's mind it was more, it was specific. Not like Quil's all-consuming love for everything that was Claire. Bennett loved specific things about her, the way she talked to people, the way she smiled at him, how she felt in his arms. They didn't even have to really explain it to him. In the midst of everything else he was freaking out about (being in his wolf mind, and body for the first time) he could feel it. He would think of Claire and immediately feel the same sense of denial that Collin had felt every time he thought of noticing her. She belonged to Quil, and he knew it from the moment that he had phased. Quil thought it was that, more than anything else, that had been the reason it had taken so long to get him to calm down and phase back to his human form.

Quil had stayed there in his mind with him for hours, explaining things and talking him down. They didn't usually explain imprinting to a wolf the very first time they phased but this was such a unique case that they had to go in to deep details of the history of imprinting and how it worked. Quil even had to go back in his mind to that very first moment that he had seen Claire and had imprinted on her when she was just two years old. Bennett never fully understood until that moment that Quil had showed him. Once he felt the power of Quil's imprint in his own mind, he seemed to accept it. That was the moment where all of the fire seemed to die within him and after a couple of minutes of Leah talking him through it, he phased back to his human form.

It was a good thing too. It had taken all of Quil's self-control to just be around him. Every time Bennett thought about Claire it had this tone of loving possessiveness. He would of course immediately be shut down by his own instincts but Quil's instincts would also kick in, and he was constantly fighting the urge to lunge for Bennett's neck and defend and claim what belonged to him. Being a wolf was something that was driven much more by primitive animal instincts than by rational mind. If Quil hadn't had so many years of practice, it would have turned into a fight right there, and there would have been no competition. He would have taken a brand-new wolf-Bennett down in seconds.

Quil was already planning on calling Jacob in the morning. He needed to get back here. This was _his_ pack and _his_ problem. Quil wanted to remove himself as far from the situation as possible. It was technically the Alpha's job to train any new wolf. Quil really didn't want to be spending the next few months going on runs with Bennett every night and explaining how to refine his new senses and skills to him. Plus, they needed to figure out why Bennett had even phased in the first place.

Bennett had been with his mom when it had happened. Quil, and Leah, and Brady (who had been on patrol at the time) had all seen the replay in Bennett's mind through the haze of his panic. His mom had been about to take him to the airport and he had decided he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay the weekend with Claire instead. But he _HAD_ to go, that's why he had gotten so upset and then boom, he had exploded. Literally, a mass of deep brown/black fur and heat had burst from him and he was a wolf. Brady had been shocked by his sudden appearance in his mind and was about fifteen miles west at the time. But he came running and tried his best to calm Bennett down and talk him into heading into the woods away from the possible public eye. Leah and Quil had gotten there within minutes of hearing the panicked howl of what they instantly new could only be a brand-new wolf.

Leah had to take a few minutes to explain things to his mom and calm her down before she tried to call the cops or animal control or something while Brady and Quil stayed with him and tried to reason with him through his panic. They couldn't seem to make any progress with him until Leah made it back in her wolf form. He seemed to respond to her the most, instinctively trusting her. Eventually Quil had Brady phase back to his human-self so that there was one less intrusive voice in Bennett's mind. And then he and Leah had stayed there with Bennett for hours, explaining things to him and trying to keep him as calm as possible. Quil had sat back mostly and let Leah reason and explain things to him since she was the only one Bennett seemed to be willing to listen to.

The biggest problem was Bennett's constant hang up on Claire. Leah would be explaining things like how the wolves originally came to be (since Bennett had mostly grown up in Ohio and not on one of the reservations he had never heard the stories before) but then he would think something along the lines of, _"Oh shit, what will Claire think about all of this!?"_ and then BOOM, as soon as he thought of her, he was shut down. There was a wall of pure denial in front of him. She was _NOT_ his to claim, and his wolf mind knew it. And then he would start freaking out all over again.

It had been exhausting. After a couple of hours, when it was clear that Leah had things reasonably under control with Bennett, Quil had decided it was time to get some answers. He had phased back to human, found his clothes and gone to find Bennett's mom. As soon as she saw him she immediately asked, "Is he okay? Did he phase back yet?" She had seemed to be taking this remarkably well for someone who had never heard of the Quiluete Werewolves. And then it had occurred to him, _She already knew._ That was why she wasn't getting hung up on wolf details and just wanted to know if he had phased back.

"No, he's still working with Leah." He had explained while giving her a shrewd look.

She had just nodded at him and then he grabbed a chair at the kitchen table and sat down uninvited. She didn't seem to notice anything until he gestured for her to sit down at the table across from him. She seemed a little surprised but complied. That was when Quil had just bluntly asked,

"Who's his father?"

"Who Mike? He's in Ohio still." She replied obviously surprised.

"No, who is his biological father?" Quil asked undeterred.

She just looked at him scathingly until he said,

"The Quileute wolves are just that. Quileute. That's where we descend from. You are a descended from the Makah tribe, and since there has never been a wolf without Quileute blood, I'm going to assume it came from his father."

She just looked at him in shock, and then suddenly blushed and looked down at her hands on top of the table. Something about her look sparked something in Quil. It wasn't just guilt about the situation, it was guilt associated specifically with him.

"It was _him,_ wasn't it?" he asked immediately.

She just looked up at him, surprised that he knew.

"It was my father." He said without any emotion, just looking at her for confirmation.

She nodded at him. She looked nervous like she was afraid of how he was going to take it. And then suddenly she said,

"I was surprised the first time I saw you, when you were at the Young's house before Bennett took Claire to homecoming. You just look so much like him. You're younger than I would have thought though."

This was the point where Quil had put his hand on his forehead and started rubbing his temples.

"It's a wolf thing. We stop aging. Bennett will now physically age to his peak, around twenty-four or twenty-five, within the next few months, and then it'll stop. He won't age again until he stops phasing permanently. I'm actually thirty….. thirty-one." He said as he suddenly started trying to figure out the date.

It was. Today had been his birthday. He was thirty-one. Well that explained things. Like why Leah had texted him repeatedly and then shown up to check on him, or why Claire would break her silence with him after all of these months to show up unexpectedly tonight.

He hadn't stayed much longer with Bennett's mom after that. He didn't really want to linger and think about the only thing (or person) that they had in common. Quil's father was always a sore subject for him. He had always kind of been a crappy dad but him abandoning Quil, his older sister, and his mom when he had been a teenager had been the icing on the cake. It didn't help that Quil looked so much like his dad, or that he shared the same name either.

Fortunately, he also shared the same name with his grandfather who had been a tribal elder until the day he died a few years back. Quil had done the best he could to erase his father's existence out of his mind, and used his grandfather to fill the role, while sewing up the spot where his father should have been.

It had sucked enough when Embry's paternal parentage had been called into question those first few years they were wolves. Leah seemed to never let it go, constantly bringing it up but there had still been a fifty-fifty shot that Sam's father was also Embry's. Though that didn't explain why Quil and Embry seemed to have the exact same set of dark eyes. But this, this now being directly related to Bennett, definitely had taken the cake for the all time crappiest thing his dad had ever done to him.

It was only about an hour after that that Leah got him to phase back. She said that she would stay with him. Someone would need to be with him at all times for the next while until it was clear he could control himself moderately well. Leah seemed the best one for the job, besides someone needed to go explain to Claire what had happened, and it was clear whose job that should be.

It amazed Quil as he walked home knowing that Claire was there waiting for him, how for all of these months he just wanted to go to her, and now he wanted to do anything but. He had to face her and give her the news that would change everything for her.

He had been surprised by her attitude. He knew that she would be mad at him. He expected that, deserved that. But she had no patience for him. Before she had always been so willing and able to give him the benefit of the doubt. But tonight, she wanted nothing from him but an explanation, and if he wasn't going to give her one than she was going to walk out of his life and never come back. She had said it to him, and it was clear from the look on her face that she meant it.

He did his best to explain things to her, but he hadn't meant to just blurt the truth to her that she could never be with him again. He didn't even want to tell her. He was hoping he could wait until the morning to explain all of the extended consequence that followed Bennett joining the pack. But she wouldn't let it go. She wouldn't stay, and if she left, he knew that she would go to him. She wouldn't stop until she found him.

Quil knew that she didn't truly blame him. But she did resent him. After all she didn't care that Bennett was a wolf, she had accepted the idea of being with a wolf years ago, as a child. The only thing standing in the way of her still being with Bennett, was Quil. He had no idea why things were so ridiculously screwed right now, but they definitely were. So, he just sat there with her. Holding her while she revealed the depth of her love for another man, by revealing the depth of her pain.

After asking him how he could have done this to her, she didn't say anything else. She just collapsed into him and was racked with sobs for hours. Finally, she didn't seem to have any sobs left in her, she just stayed there, leaning into Quil's chest whimpering. It was around five in the morning. Quil got up slowly without saying anything. She just slid to the floor, she didn't seem to have the strength to support herself. He went over to his dresser and pulled out a clean t-shirt that she had washed for him. He came back to her and pulled her into a sitting position. She didn't respond in anyway, she just sat up against him when he pulled her up. She wasn't even looking at him. She wasn't looking at anything. She seemed to be lost in herself.

Quil carefully pulled the strap of her sling up over her head and then slid it off her arm. He finally had a chance to look at her fairly extensive injuries and wonder again with a sense of urgency, _What happened?!_

He knew he wasn't going to get his answers now though. He reached down to the hem of her dress and carefully pulled it up to her chest, where he then guided her left arm through before lifting it off over her head and then carefully pulled the dress out over her cast, noticing as he did, that the front seemed completely soaked with her tears. She just sat there in her gray, cotton, brief-style panties and light lacy bra that was remarkably similar to the one that Leah had been wearing early that evening. The thought immediately sent feelings of guilt racking though him. He took the shirt he had just grabbed and pulled it over her. He helped her get her left arm quickly through the sleeve and then pulled it carefully over and around her cast before he let it drop where it fell all the way to the floor, covering her completely.

He gently lifted her into his arms leaning her left side against him so that he wouldn't jostle her broken arm and then carried her over to the left side of his bed. Claire usually slept on the right side of the bed but that was the side that he and Leah had been on earlier, so he thought it was best to put her as far from that side as possible. She didn't say anything as he laid her down, exhausted, onto the bed. She just stared up at the ceiling completely dazed. He put his hand on her forehead, brushing her hair softly and asked quietly,

"Where's your phone, Honey?"

He needed to communicate with her family. They were probably panicked that she had never come home. She just looked at him for a second as if she couldn't process what he had asked and then said in a dry hoarse voice,

"I don't have one. It shattered in the accident."

Feeling even more questions about this mysterious accident he just nodded at her and said,

"Go to sleep, Claire."

She didn't respond except to move her eyelids. She hadn't moved at all. She was just lying there looking at him and then she closed her eyes.

He reached over to his phone that was still on his nightstand from where he had left it after the gym. He did have at least four messages from Leah and one from his sister wishing him a happy birthday. He ignored them and found Rachel's number in his phone. He wasn't even sure that he had it, but he was relieved when he did. He texted her quickly,

Do your parents know Claire isn't home?

He just sat there waiting, hoping that if she was asleep his text would have woken her up. After a few moments his phone pinged, and he looked away from Claire, who he had been staring at, and saw Rachel's reply,

No. Where is she?

He just shook his head; how could they not know that their sixteen-year-old daughter wasn't in her bed where she was supposed to be?

Good. She's with me, I'll take her home later.

At least he wouldn't have to explain to a panicked Robert and Susan what had happened. There was another ping.

She's with you? Is she alright?

He guessed he couldn't blame Rachel for being skeptical at this point.

She's asleep. She's okay, it's a long story. I'm sure she'll tell you later.

Now that that was taken care of, Quil was exhausted. It had been an incredibly emotional day and it was quickly approaching twenty-four hours since the last time he had gotten any crappy sleep. He walked around to the other side of the bed, he didn't even bother turning off the light, and laid down next to Claire. He didn't dare touch her, but he wanted to feel her as close to him as he could, so he ended up in the middle of the bed only inches from her and then closed his eyes while listening to the slow rhythmic breathing of her sleep. He immediately felt a sense of calming peace. He was back to being exactly where he was supposed to be, and he fell asleep without being buzzed for the first time in months.

He slept better than he had since…since he had left without her that day. He woke up when he felt her wake up. He had never seen her wake up like that. She usually woke up gradually, rolling around and continuing to try to sleep. But this time, she was lying there asleep, and the next second she gasped and opened her eyes with seemingly full awareness. He was groggy but worried about her, so he sat up in the bed still only inches from her. He started rubbing his face to wake himself up and asked,

"You okay?"

She only nodded at the ceiling. She didn't even look at him. Quil was at a loss at this point, he knew that the only thing to make her feel any better, he couldn't give her. He couldn't reclaim her potential future with Bennett and give it back to her.

He sighed deeply and said,

"I'm going to take a shower; will you stay here until I get out?"

She continued to stare at the ceiling as she nodded again.

"Okay." He said as he blew out a breath.

As he climbed off the bed he looked around for the first time and noticed just how much she must have cleaned the night before. He doubted if his apartment had ever been so cleaned. She must have had a lot of nervous energy to plow through everything she did in three hours…especially with only one arm. The thought made him sad; her stuck here for hours, not knowing what was happening, and then finally after all of the waiting to be rewarded with what was potentially the worse news of her short life. He shook his head trying to stop himself from thinking about things out of his control.

He grabbed a clean pair of boxer-briefs out of the drawer Claire had put them in and got in the shower. He meant to be fast, knowing that Claire was out there essentially helpless and with a broken arm. There was also a certain amount of flight risk, if he took too long she may find more energy and just decide she had had enough and leave. But the hot water seemed to loosen all of his over-tightened muscles. They had only slept for roughly four hours. It was better sleep than he had been getting, but it wasn't a lot of it. After about thirty minutes he got out and was suddenly feeling rushed knowing that he had taken longer than he should have.

He wrapped a towel around his waist and while brushing his teeth he wiped the steam off the mirror to catch a glimpse of himself. _Crap. The beard._ He hadn't thought about it since Leah had mentioned it the night before. He knew Claire wouldn't like it, but he didn't have time to shave a growth that thick. He just sighed and finished in the bathroom.

He came out in only his boxer-briefs since that was all the clothes he had brought with him into the bathroom. Claire had sat up and was sitting on the edge of the bed with her casted arm against her. That seemed to be all she had moved. She was in just the large t-shirt he had put her in the night before with her legs hanging out of it and realizing that she was only in his shirt while he was only in his underwear sent a rush of shame over him as he thought of what she must think of him after last night. He still hadn't explained to her any of what happened with Leah, but now just didn't seem like the right time. He didn't even think she would be able to hear him if he tried to anyways. She was staring at the floor and didn't even look up when he walked out.

He quickly went to his dresser and pulled on a pair of pants and a t-shirt. He grabbed Claire's dress off the floor where he had left it the night before and brought it over to her where he set it right next to her and then crouched down right in front of where she was sitting on the side of his bed. She finally looked up at him.

"Claire, Honey?" He said in a soft voice as he put his hand on her left cheek where she didn't have any stitches, "What do you want to do now? Do you want some food?"

"I want to go home." She said in a cracked voice.

"Okay. I'll take you home. Do you want some water first?" he asked her.

She nodded at him. She wasn't using a lot of verbal communication which worried him, but she was maintaining eye contact with him which he perceived as a good thing.

He got up and went to the kitchen where he took a clean glass out of the dishwasher Claire had run and filled it from the tap before he brought it back to her. She seemed to be finally gaining awareness and looking around herself hesitantly. He handed her the glass in her left hand and then went to sit next to her on her left side and put an arm around her, but as soon as he sat down she used her left hand with the glass in it to push him away from her while still looking away from him. She didn't use any force. She just pushed pressure against him until he slid down the bed a few feet away from her.

Everything inside of Quil was screaming at him to be close to her. To touch her. To pull her into his chest and hold her while he still could after these longs months apart from her. But he knew he needed to respect her need for space, so he just stayed as close to her as she would allow while she seemed to maintain a three-foot protective bubble around herself.

She didn't say anything, she just drank the whole glass of water at once. When she finished she slowly stood up. The T-shirt she was wearing came almost halfway down her thighs. Quil grabbed her dress for her and went to help her but she put her hand out to stop him again before he could touch her.

"I can do it." She said in a dead voice still not looking at him, "Just wait downstairs."

It surprised Quil, not that she would insist on doing it herself, she had always been independent, but that she would refuse to change in front of him. She had never done that before, excepting the few times she had been naked after getting out of the shower. But here with her arm broken and having faced multiple traumatic events he wanted to argue that he should at least stay in case she changed her mind about needing help.

"Claire." he said in a reasonable voice.

But she finally looked up at him and he could see in her eyes that she wasn't being stubbornly independent, she was just not going to change here in front of him. Not now, not ever.

It hurt him to think of the trust she had lost in him. He realized that after his stunt with Leah last night he had no right to expect any better, but he didn't like it, he wanted to stay as close to her as he could and help her as much as she needed.

"Alright." He sighed putting his hands up in surrender. "I'll be downstairs waiting to take you home when you're ready."

"Thank you." She said simply as he got up and went to the door.

He wanted to turn around and go back to her, to hold her, to apologize, to explain things to her but he knew that it would be a mistake too. So, he just walked out the door, closed it softly behind him and blew out a big breath as he went to wait in the garage for Claire.

She was ready surprisingly fast, especially considering her broken arm. Within about five minutes she was coming down the stairs looking young and fresh. Quil hadn't liked the way that the lipstick she had been wearing the night before made her look older. Claire was beautiful, what did she need to look like she was in her twenties for? She seemed like she had combed out her hair, and washed face. He suspected she had done that cute thing she used to do where she would brush her teeth with her finger and his toothpaste any time she stayed the night unexpectedly. She would always make a face and say how weird it was that his toothpaste was cinnamon flavored.

She didn't say anything, she just walked up to him where he was sitting on the hood of the Camaro waiting for her.

"You ready?" he asked her.

She just nodded, _Uh-oh we're back to nonverbal communication-_ he thought to himself.

"You look nice." He said trying to engage her.

She looked up at him and gave him maybe half a smile before she walked around him to get in the passenger side of the car. He hopped up and quickly went before her to open the car door for her. She obviously wasn't expecting him to and she jumped at his close proximity to her. He quickly put his hand behind her to catch her when she jumped. She seemed to visibly relax against his touch but did nothing to get closer or touch him back, she just stood there for a second with his hand on her back and then she slid into the car without looking at him. He closed the door softly, before he blew out a breath as he ran a hand through his grown-out hair, he hadn't cut it since the last time he had seen Claire.

He clearly had a lot of work to do before they could get back to what they had been. But he was more than willing to do it, just as long as she let him stay with her this time.

It was silent as he got in the car and pulled out of the shop. She just sat there stoically until he finally said,

"So, do I ever get to hear about the accident?"

He had been dying to find out what had happened since the moment he had seen her. She had tried to blame cheerleading at first but Quil had a tough time imagining what kind of cheerleading accident would leave her with that amount of damage.

She seemed surprised to hear him speak, it took her a second while she swallowed before she said,

"It was a week ago today. Bennett and I were leaving one of my competitions when we got rear ended. The car was pushed through one lane of traffic and into the next where we were hit on my side by a bus from one of the competing schools."

She explained it as if she was giving a report of the past week's weather.

Quil was completely stunned for a second as he took in all the details of such a brutal accident. He realized his hands were shaking as he said in a hurt voice,

"And you didn't call me?!"

She seemed to have a little more life in her when she responded,

"I told my mom to. But then once I was out of the hospital, I didn't know how to let you know….. That was a big part of why I came over last night."

And they had come around to last night. He knew they needed to talk about it, but he wanted more details about the accident first. They were just pulling up in front of her house when he asked,

"Why didn't your mom call me?"

Claire seemed a little embarrassed but said,

"She thought that you might have come on to me… That that was why…." she took a deep breath and continued, "…why I asked you to leave."

He just took a breath and looked forward out the windshield. They were already parked with the car turned off, but he needed a second to process the fact that Susan had thought he had come on to her then fifteen-year-old daughter.

Claire quickly said,

"I thought she had called you, at the hospital. I thought you knew and just didn't come."

He immediately turned and gave her a shocked and angry look,

"Claire!"

How could she ever think that? That he just wouldn't come, when she was hurt, when she needed him.

"As soon as she told me she hadn't called you and why, I told her the truth."

She told him honestly.

"Which is what?" He asked her, thinking about how he had tried to kiss her right before she had kicked him out of her life.

"That you would _never_ do that."

He was relieved, he couldn't hide it. He was glad that she knew that. He was about to grab her hand when she surprised him by reaching around herself with her left hand to open her door and saying,

"Thanks for the ride."

"Claire, wait." He said startled.

She just turned to look at him with a blank look on her face. He wasn't sure if he thought she wasn't seeing him at all or else seeing him clearly for the first time. Either way, this wasn't the way she used to always look at him, with love, maybe even admiration. This look… she wasn't even mad, it was just nothing. As if a stranger had asked her to stop for a second to ask her a question. He was so stunned by this that it took him a second before he could speak,

"We…. we need to talk about last night."

She seemed surprised and then turned forward before she said in a quiet voice,

"No, we don't."

"Claire," he said in a semi-whiny voice. She had to know that they needed to talk about it if they wanted to get past it.

She didn't respond, she just took a breath and turned back to look expectantly at him. It was clearly the only chance he was going to get to clarify what had happened with Leah. He just struggled for words for a moment before saying,

"…. Eh….. It was a mistake."

She rolled her eyes as she looked away from him again,

"You really don't have to explain." She said like she didn't want to hear it.

"Yes, Claire, I do." He tried but she immediately came back with,

"No, Quil, you don't. It's fine. If you want to be with Leah, go for it. In fact, you have my blessing, at least one of us should be with the person we want." while looking out the windshield at her street in front of them.

Quil was almost shocked into silence before he could say in a soft voice,

"Claire, I don't want to be with Leah."

She simply shrugged,

"Have a relationship, just have casual sex. Look, whatever it is, I don't need to know, okay? It's your life. Neither of us chose to have our lives irreversibly twisted together like they are, but that's the way it is so let's just move on, alright?"

She seemed to get upset as she finished and opened the car door, she stepped out before he could stop her. He quickly got out of the car and said over top of it.

"Claire, wait! It's not like that. I don't want to be with Leah. Last night was a mistake. I was drunk and stupid and in pain and she was just…. there…"

He felt like his explanation wasn't coming out right, but she had stopped walking away and turned back around to him, starting calmly over the car,

"I never had sex with him. I never had sex with Bennett. I was holding on to my virginity, like some idiot! Thinking that you and I were some sort of stupid soulmates or something, and now I will _NEVER_ get that chance again. So, go have casual-drunk-she-was-just-there-sex with Leah because I really don't care!" She finished before giving him a scathing look.

Quil actually was stunned into silence this time. He didn't know that Claire had been saving herself for him. They had never even talked about it. Sex wasn't a tabooed subject between them, the subject of when or who she would give her virginity to had just never come up. But realizing now that she had been putting off Bennett and holding out for him… it suddenly made last night the biggest mistake of his entire stupid life.

"Claire, I…. I didn't know… I should've….. Claire, I'm sorry." He said knowing that it would never be enough for the way he had hurt her.

"Sorry for what, Quil!?" She asked exasperatedly, "Sorry that I showed up? Sorry that she was there? Sorry that my boyfriend turned into a stupid werewolf!? Sorry that you imprinted on me fourteen freaking years ago!?"

He didn't know what to say, she was obviously hurt, and he didn't know how to fix it. He just stood there helplessly before she blew out a big breath and said,

"Just go home, Quil. What more is there to say to each other?"

She turned to walk up to the house, and he was suddenly panicked she wouldn't let him come back again.

"Claire!"

She paused where she was and looked back at him expectantly.

In a small pleading voice, he begged, "Please. Please let me come back."

She just evaluated him for a moment before she nodded at him. He was extremely relieved and blew out a large breath he had been holding in.

"Tonight? Can I come see you tonight?" He asked quickly.

"That's fine." She said in a defeated voice before she turned and walked the rest of the way into her house.

He sighed relieved and despite everything, excited. He had the prospect of seeing Claire again for the first time in four months. He finally got back in his car and drove away with a smile on his face.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Quil went home and immediately called Jacob knowing that with the time difference it was already evening in France and not wanting to wait until the next day to call. They needed to figure things out now. He laid it all out there for Jacob. Everything. Claire and Bennett's relationship, Bennett's biological father being Quil's dad, even that he had almost hooked up with Leah and that Claire had been saving herself for him.

"Wow." was all that Jake had said when Quil had finished explaining the entire story to him. "How did you let everything get so screwed, Quil?" he asked.

"I will pay you if you can tell me exactly where I want wrong and how to fix it." Quil told him desperately.

"Well for starters, hooking up with Leah? Yeah I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole." He responded.

Quil just groaned loudly, "Don't remind me. It was just so _stupid_!"

"Well…. I dunno …. I mean it was a _TERRIBLE_ idea, but I get it. If Nessie ever left me-" Jacob cut off sounding choked, the idea was clearly too painful to even talk about.

"I know. Welcome to my personal hell. Four months, Jake. Four months without her. Of course, I was stupid enough to do something like having sex with Leah." Quil said, knowing that Jacob was probably the only one who could actually understand.

"Nah, it's not the same. You're not there yet." Jacob responded easily.

"What do you mean?" asked Quil confused.

"You. You're not there yet. With Claire. It wouldn't be the same as if Nessie left me."

Quil was stunned, sure Claire and he weren't married with five freaking kids like Jake and Renesme, but other than that how were they any different?

"What do you mean? She's my imprint, same as you with Renesme." He said trying to be reasonable but not appreciating Jacob belittling his pain.

"Ha!" Jacob actually laughed. "Renesme and I have been married for ten years, Quil. You don't think my love for her as grown? Changed, and developed over the years? What, you think that there is just one imprinted love and that that's it? You honestly think that the way you loved Claire when you first imprinted on her at two is still the same as the way you love her today? Or in ten years?"

Quil was in shock. He had honestly never thought of it that way. She was his imprint and he loved her, that was they way he had always seen it. Looking at it more intensely for the first time possibly ever, he realized that he did love Claire differently, if not more, than he had when she was two. He thought about the way that Bennett had loved Claire; so sharply, so specifically. He suddenly realized that that was the way she needed to be loved, deserved to be loved, by the person she was going to be with. No wonder his love for her had no longer been enough for her.

"Trust me, one day you will be truly in love with Claire -not just love her, not just need her as your imprint- truly, deeply love her until you can't breathe. And then, then if she left you, if she truly rejected you, that would be your hell. This was just a phase, Quil. A bump in her road to finding that she needs you too." Jacob said. He said it like a simple fact, not like he was trying to make him feel better.

"Yeah…" said Quil stunned, "I hope I never have to find out if her leaving gets worse."

"You won't, trust me. She just got a four-month taste of knowing what life was like without you, and now she doesn't have her boyfriend to distract her from her feelings of separation. She won't push you away now." Said Jacob confidently.

"Jake, how are you such an expert in imprinted relationships?" Quil asked honestly, "I technically imprinted on Claire before you imprinted on Nessie."

Jacob laughed for a full minute before he said, "You think your situation is bad? I went through every one of these phases you and Claire are going through with Nessie, just in hyper-speed. Yeah it sucks that Claire's boyfriend turned out to be a werewolf, but you try explaining to a three-year-old with the growth of a fourteen-year-old that you had been in love with her mom for three years and fought for her and her love until the day that she was born, but that you hope she'll get past it and still want to be with you one day!"

"Oh yikes."

His situation suddenly didn't seem quite so dramatic or unique.

"Yup. So, what are we going to do about this new wolf?" Jacob asked, already back to business.

The phone call had lasted for hours. Ultimately it was decided that Jacob wouldn't come, Quil was just going to have to suck it up and deal with Bennett as the default-Alpha. Jacob had checked flights, but he couldn't get one until Wednesday and that flight only went to L.A. and then he would have to connect to a flight to Seattle. By the time he got there it would be Thursday and it was currently Saturday. And because Renesme couldn't come with him since they hadn't ruled out the possibly that she was setting off the wolf gene, Jacob wasn't willing to be away from her and the kids for more than a week, even if she did have an entire house full of bloodsuckers to help her with them. It just made no sense for Jake to come. He would probably spend more time on planes then anything else, besides they couldn't just leave Bennett with no training until Thursday, and what were they going to do when Jake left again? So reluctantly, Quil took on the responsibility of Bennett Callahan.

"Ask Sam for tips." Jacob had suggested. "He trained way more new wolves than I ever did, besides he whipped us into shape pretty good."

"Naw, that was all just raw, natural, wolf ability." Quil joked with him.

They finally hung up after Jacob had wished Quil good luck. Quil looked at the clock and realized that he only had an hour to go see Claire if he was going to see her before he switched Leah (who had been with Bennett for almost twenty-four hours at this point.) and take Bennett on his very first patrol run.

He just ran to Claire's house instead of driving so he could leave strait from there to his patrol with Bennett without having to deal with his car. He made it in about two minutes. He had gotten his running stride down over the past few months and he was feeling excited about getting to be with Claire again, even if she was still upset with him, and it put some extra pep in his step. He felt strange when he got to the front door. Did he knock? He had never knocked in the past, he was there too frequently and besides everyone had always viewed him as just a part of the family. But it had been months since he had been there, and he didn't even know how the members of Claire's family viewed him now.

In the end he had settled for a light knock on the door as he opened it. As he made it into the house Jamie came running at him yelling, "Quil!"

"Hey bud! Long time no see, whoa you have gotten so big! When did that happen?" Quil asked him while Jamie hugged his legs tighter than Quil would have thought possible.

"When I turned five." Jamie answered simply.

"When you turned five… that makes sense." Quil said, figuring he couldn't argue with that logic. "Where is everyone else?"

Quil couldn't see anybody but Jamie downstairs and it was the time of day where there was usually a lot happening. Even if only dinner was being cooked in the kitchen, it seemed like the whole family congregated there.

Jamie shrugged and said, "Mom and Dad said they had to do something 'important' today." -he actually used air quotes around the word 'important'- "Rachel has been upstairs with Claire _ALL_ day. She said Claire wasn't feeling well and to leave her alone. But come on let's go find 'em!" he said grabbing Quil's hand and pulling him toward the stairs.

Quil was suddenly nervous. He didn't like the way that that sounded. Claire had been upset when he had dropped her off and it sounded like it hadn't gotten better from there. He followed Jamie up the stairs though and was surprised when he just threw open Claire's bedroom door as he ran in yelling,

"Claire! Guess who is here!"

Claire was sitting in her desk chair and Rachel was standing behind her and appeared to be just finished doing Claire's hair into two long braids. They looked like they had been having a serious conversation, and Claire had been wiping a tear from her eye when Jamie walked in with Quil following slowly behind him. She seemed to be trying to hide her emotions for Jamie when she sniffed quickly and brightened her face to ask, "Who Jamie!?" as if she was excited.

"Quil is here! Now we can finally go get ice cream with Bennett! Rocky road, remember?" he said excitedly.

Claire couldn't seem to help the look of shock and hurt that splashed across her face before she quickly turned to Rachel for help. She looked as if Jamie had slapped her, but Quil was surprised to see Claire turn to Rachel for help. That was new. They had never even gotten along before. Rachel quickly said,

"Come on, Jamie, let's go downstairs. I think we have some rocky road in the freezer."

"Yes!" Jamie said, as if he had just won the lottery.

Rachel quickly grabbed his hand to take him out but said, "Hey Quil." In what he could only describe as a sarcastic tone as she walked past.

"Quil, are you coming!?" Jamie asked eagerly.

"I'll be there in a bit, okay bud? Save me some rocky road." Quil told him so he would leave with Rachel as she walked out the door.

"Can I come in?" he asked Claire even though he was already in and Rachel had closed the door behind her.

"Sure." She said with a sniff. She still hadn't looked at him yet.

Quil tried not to think about the last time he had been in there as he went and sat on Claire's bed across from her.

"I like the hair. It's very _Million Dollar Baby_." He told her as he noticed that she was wearing a pair of sweats with a Nike work out tank top he didn't think he had ever seen before.

She gave a little laugh and said, "Yeah, they're called boxer braids…. that's probably why. Rachel's been helping me a lot with my hair since, you know, I can't do much without the arm." She explained to him.

"That's nice of her. You seem like you are a lot closer to her than you used to be." Quil noted.

"Yeah, Rachel has been great. I don't think I ever gave her the credit she was due before." Claire told him while finally looking at him for the first time.

 _Credit for what?_ Quil thought critically to himself.

"And what's with this?" he teased, pulling on the hem of her highlighter yellow tank top. She jumped a little like she wasn't expecting him to touch her as his fingers brushed the skin of her waist. "Are you planning on going for a run or just using your cast for an actual boxing match?"

She looked at him a little critically before she said, "No, but it has a built in running bra and I can actually put it on by myself."

He was a little surprised that she had shared this detail with him, but he suddenly realized that with just her one hand she probably wasn't even able to take her own bra on or off without help.

"That must be frustrating not being able to do all the things you used to be able to do by yourself." He said reasonably, knowing how much she valued her independence.

She shrugged and said simply, "Rachel has been really helpful, she's always there if I need her help."

He hated that she was using that to describe someone else. She used to describe him that way. He always wanted to be that person for her.

"Yeah, Rachel didn't seem too happy to see me just now." He pointed out good-naturedly.

"Yeah, she's not your biggest fan right now…. Or Leah's." Claire said pointedly.

 _Oh!_ So, Claire had told Rachel what had happened. That explained Rachel's cold greeting, not that Quil cared. He felt that that was Claire's prerogative, but was still surprised that she had told her sister about it instead of internalizing it like he thought she would have done six months earlier.

"Oh…. Claire, I really am sorry. I had no idea you were saving yourself for me-" He began but she held up her hand to keep him from continuing.

"Quil, I really don't want to talk about it anymore. Honestly, I don't think there is anything you could say that would make me feel better about it." She had been looking at him but looked away for a second before quickly turning back sharply and giving him a pointed look as she said, "I wasn't saving myself for you."

He just gave her a confused look. Hadn't she said…?

"I wasn't waiting for _you_ specifically. We had talked about it and we decided we wanted to wait another year. At the time it seemed like a good idea, especially for me because I wasn't sure where you played into my life….in my future…if we _were_ supposed to be together it seemed like maybe I should wait for you….. but now…." She trailed off.

Quil's head was spinning, there was so much upsetting information in that one blurb she had just given him that he didn't even know what to focus on first. She had planned on being with him for another _year_!? They had talked about having sex, not just it might-have/could-have happened, they had actually _talked_ about it? She regretted not giving her virginity to Bennett while she had the chance? She didn't think that she was ever supposed to be with him anymore?

It got a little awkward as he sat there silently processing all of that. Finally, he said, "I didn't know you thought about all that." like it was an explanation.

"What? Sex?" she asked.

"No. Well yes. Sex, the future, _our_ future, all of it." He explained

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?" she asked him puzzled.

"I dunno…" he said truthfully. If he was being honest with himself it was because _he_ never really thought about that stuff. "I guess because you are just young, you have so much time to figure all of that out."

She laughed. It was the first time he had heard her laugh in four months and he soaked up the sound of it as much as he could, trying to keep it for memory.

"Are you serious?" she asked him.

"Yeah." He answered seriously.

"Quil, how old were you when you lost your virginity?" she asked skeptically.

He suddenly squirmed uncomfortably, but they had been completely honest with each other today and it wasn't a good idea to start lying to her now.

"Sixteen." He said begrudgingly and not looking at her.

"That's what I thought, and how many girls did you have sex with before you met me?" she asked proving a point.

Yeah, there was no way that he was going to tell her that. He had been seventeen and thought that life had no consequences when he had turned into a wolf and within four months had the body of a ripped twenty-five-year-old man. You could get a _lot_ of tail like that and it wasn't something he was proud of or wanted anyone, especially Claire, to know about.

She could tell he wasn't going to answer so she moved on to,

"What do you think I'll be doing in two years?"

"Um finishing high school." He answered glad that she was moving on from the subject of his sexual history.

"Yeah, and what happens after that?" she asked like she was waiting for him to understand her point.

"You go to college?" he asked suggestively.

"Yes, exactly. And what are you going to do when I go away to college? Hmm? You going to come over and hang out with Jamie?" She asked.

"No, I'll go with you, of course."

He could never be away from her, he had always known that but the past few months had proven it as fact to him.

"You'll go with me? Okay, in what capacity? Are you going to get your own apartment on campus? Are we going to live together? Are we going to _be together_? Are we going to get married first or are we just going to shack up together? Have you ever thought about any of that?" she asked him shrewdly.

He hadn't thought about _any_ of it. He hadn't ever thought past her not going away somewhere without him.

"I guess I never really thought about it." He admitted to her.

"Well I have! I have two years to figure out what capacity I want you in my life before I leave for college. Do you think I want you to live across the hall from me if I decide to date around in college? I could never bring guys home, it would be super weird. And if I hadn't already thought about _when_ I wanted to lose my virginity, I would have already lost it."

He literally shuttered at the idea of her _bringing guys home_ , and the thought of her potentially having already lost her virginity was deeply upsetting to him, even though he knew that that wasn't fair. He had never expected her to wait for him, he had never actually thought about it at all before today.

"I'm sorry, Claire. I guess I really dropped the ball on thinking about the future, especially your future, it's just all moving a little fast for me." He apologized honestly.

He was surprised when she scoffed at him. She was being unusually angsty tonight but then he figured that with everything he had put her through in the last twenty-four hours she had a right to be.

"What?" he asked confused.

"You have had fourteen _years_ of time to ease into it. And you didn't seem to have any problem moving too quickly with Leah last night." She snapped a bit at him.

"Ouch." He replied, he felt like she had slapped him with those words.

"You know what, Quil?" she began suddenly, "Maybe the truth is, I'm just not your type, maybe we just really aren't good for each other that way." She paused for a second before she continued, "We clearly don't have a problem with being physical with other people besides each other, and we don't know why the wolves imprint in the first place. Maybe it _is_ all about wolf genes and babies. That has never seemed super important to you and besides, if that's what you want, some other girl can give you babies. Maybe the truth is, just because you imprinted on me doesn't mean we should actually be together. I think maybe I have always put way too much stock in the power of imprinting and that that was supposed to mean that we were _meant_ to be together." She finished simply and then looked up at him.

He hated that she was doing this. That she was reasoning herself away from him. That she thought that the only component of their relationship was genetic. That she was pushing him away again and picturing their futures without each other in them. He tried to phrase things as best as he could while still communicating to her the importance of it as he told her intensely,

"The reason I have never been _in_ to you, Claire, is that you are half my age, not because you aren't my type. Trust me when I say _that's_ not true. There _was_ a reason I tried to kiss you here four months ago. It was because I couldn't get the way you had kissed me out of my head! It was like this taste of potential, and I had to have more of it, no matter how much I knew it was a bad idea. What I did last night with Leah was incredibly stupid, I know that. But I was in …... _PAIN_ , Claire. Without you in my life, I'm in _pain_. I have no future without you. Not with Leah, not with anyone. I need you. _That_ is why I imprinted on you. I don't need you _because_ I imprinted on you. I imprinted on you because I _need_ you!" he finished with a huff.

He was getting more upset with each word. How could she think they weren't meant to be together? That they weren't soulmates? That they weren't perfect for each other in every way? Sure, he had been behind when it came to thinking about it, but as soon as he finally did, it was all obvious to him they were _supposed_ to be together. As soon as she was ready, they were supposed to be together. She was staring at him with tears in her eyes looking a little shocked at his declaration. He was breathing as hard as if he had just run his standard twenty-mile run in a sprint.

They both jumped when they heard Leah's impatient howl call to him through the night. He was supposed to have switched her already.

"Dammit! -I have to go, Claire."

But then he worried from the look on her face that she thought he meant he had to go because _Leah_ had called to him and explained, "I'm supposed to take Bennett on his first run. It's my job to train him. Jacob can't come back and do it. I already asked him."

He sat there for another second with his face in his hands, knowing that he had to leave, that he had responsibilities to meet, and a freaked-out kid that needed instructions on how to handle the next foreseeable future. But he just sat there afraid that if he left she would go back to thinking all the doubtful thoughts she had confessed to him.

"Look Claire, I know you're hurting over Bennett. I know that, and I know that _I_ am what is standing in the way of you getting to be with him. And I know that it will take some time for you to get over what I did with Leah. But I'm not going anywhere. And I know that one day, when your heart isn't broken anymore, I will be here, and I will still _want_ to be with you. So, just until then, don't give up on me. Alright?" he asked her intensely as he looked up at her so that he could stare into her light brown eyes as he said it.

"Alright." She agreed in a soft, quiet voice.

Satisfied, he finally stood up to leave. He was half-way to the door when he stopped. He needed to give her a reason to wait. A reason to keep hope and believe that despite the fact that everything was so screwed up today, that there would be a day when nothing made more sense than the two of them being together. He turned back around to her still sitting in the desk chair looking a little dazed. He quickly closed the gap between them, bent down to her while grabbing the uninjured left side of her face in his too big hand and kissed her.

He had just meant to come in with a quick, hard kiss that would remind her of why he was there. But then his lips found hers and suddenly he felt frozen and locked there the same way that he had felt the very first time she had surprised him with a kiss. Like he was melted to her. And then, _then_ she had responded to him.

She kissed him back intensely, parting his lips with her own. He was a little shocked when he felt her tongue taste his bottom lip as her lips moved with his in what he could only describe as a sensation that was brand-new and yet felt completely familiar. It took him less than a single second to adjust before his lips took back the control she had shocked out of him and his mouth started moving more purposefully against hers to taste the sweet inside of her lips.

The night before, he had kissed Leah with all of the energy and enthusiasm he had, and it had felt good in a base sort of way. But it had _nothing_ on this kiss. Kissing Claire made him feel like he was being baptized by fire and coming home to a plate of warm cookies at the same time. Suddenly, he knew that for as long as he lived he never wanted to kiss another woman again. It could never even come close in comparison to kissing Claire anyways.

He felt the passion burn between them for a few more moments as he continued to kiss her. Felt all of the potential for a future together; for the type of love that Jacob had said they were capable of having. He could literally taste it. Claire tasted like a somehow amazingly fresh combination of spearmint, sea salt, and chocolate and he couldn't imagine a brighter future than tasting her kiss every day. It would only get better with every kiss, every taste of her. And then somehow, he finally found his self-control and quickly pulled back from her before he lost it again.

He looked directly in her eyes and said as intensely as he could,

"That! That is why we are supposed to be together, Claire Young. Just don't forget it between now and then. Got it?"

She looked a little scared as she stared back at him. She swallowed quickly making him notice how her lips were slightly swollen from his kiss and then she nodded.

 **Claire:**

Claire woke up the next morning with a sense of confusion. She was in her room and in her bed like she was supposed to be. But she wasn't sure of much else. And then it hit her like a tank. All the recent events that had happened replayed in her mind backward and in super speed.

 _*That intense, impassioned look Quil had given her before he left. *The kiss where he had promised that they were supposed to be together after all. *His explaining his need for her. *Her expressing all her doubts about if they could have a future together. *Him teasing her about her hair. *Her spending the day crying uncontrollably as she told Rachel everything that happened. *Her telling Quil she had saved her virginity. *Quil dropping her off in the Camaro. *Her waking up with a shock in Quil's bed. *Her braking down in Quil's arms on the floor. *Quil telling her Bennett was now a wolf. *Her pacing in front of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. *Her cleaning Quil's apartment. *Leah telling her it wasn't what she thought. *Quil grabbing her arm before she almost ripped it out of socket to pull away from him. *Her running down the stairs as Quil chased after her. *Her opening the door interrupting Quil and Leah together. *Rachel and Travis dropping her off in front of the garage. *Her pacing in her room worried about Quil on his birthday. *Her crying a few small tears as Bennett kissed her cheek and said he'd see her soon. *Her lying on the floor as Bennett whispered in her ear that he would love her forever. *Her at school realizing that it was Quil's birthday. *Her waking up with a twisted gut. *Emily sitting next to her asking 'Well what does Quil have?'. *Bennett holding her left hand as he carried her books down the hall at school. *Macy asking her on Wednesday if she was worried that she'd have a cast in prom pictures. *Her feeling upset when her mom missed family dinner on Tuesday night. *Rachel blow drying her hair Tuesday morning. *Doing her homework alone at the kitchen table Monday afternoon. *Bennett holding her in his arms in the kitchen on Sunday after she got home from the hospital. *The ortho-surgeon re-breaking and setting her arm as she screamed in intense pain and had to cry alone because Quil wasn't there. *Her waking up on the gurney as it was pushed into the ER. *The airbag being the only thing she could see as she lost consciousness. *Bennett holding her hand and making her laugh as they walked to the car. *Her right arm almost giving out as she caught Claudia. *Singing as loudly as she could to Beyoncé with Bennett on the way to the competition. *Bennett telling her he loved her for the first time._

That was the last one that she held on to as she laid there, with the weight of her cast on her chest making it even harder for her to breath as she fought the tears pooling in her eyes. She thought of that smile Bennett had given her, meant specifically for her and now she doubted if she would ever see it again. How could so much change in her life so quickly? How could he just be gone to her? He loved her one minute and could never be with her the next. It hurt too much to even think about. But then there was Quil.

 _Ugh_ , she didn't want to think about Quil either. She didn't even know how she felt about him anymore. Angry? Yes. Resentful? You bet. Frustrated with? Definitely. But then there were more complicated feelings she couldn't so easily identify. She thought back to the moment that he kissed her. She wasn't sure why she hadn't seen it coming as he came back to her, but it wasn't until he grabbed her face and pulled her neck up to meet his kiss that she knew what was happening. She had never felt so confused. Her first instinct had been to push back and shove him away, but then she actually _felt_ his kiss and suddenly she understood for the first time why Quil might have done what he did with Leah. It truly was an escape from the pain. And she felt horrible for using Quil like that, as an escape, but she never would have done it on her own. It was only because he was _already_ kissing her that made her unable to stop herself from returning the kiss that enabled an escape from her pain ….

But then somewhere along the line it had changed for her. It stopped being about hiding from something and became about embracing something else, even if she wasn't sure what. Suddenly what he had said about having a taste of potential made sense to her. She could feel it. They had more... or at least they had the potential for so much more. So much more it frightened her.

Why was Quil just now so sure that they WOULD be together, that they _SHOULD_ be together? He never had been before but last night he was. He made it clear he was.

Finally, having enough of dwelling on things that hurt, Claire took a deep breath, and shoved all of her feelings down as far as she could. She got out of bed and started her day. It was Sunday and she didn't know what she was going to do today but she knew that she had to keep moving. If she held still for even a minute, she might fall apart, and she just couldn't fall apart again. So, she folded her laundry. Then she cleaned her room. Then she ran out of things to do. She couldn't bring herself to do her homework. She usually did her homework with Bennett and it was just too painful to do it alone… like how she would always have to now. So, she decided she needed to keep moving. Literally.

She was still wearing her running top and her hair was still braided, so she changed her sweats for her running tights and put her Nikes on. She was just running down the stairs when her mom saw her.

"What are you doing, Claire?"

 _Crap!_ She thought to herself. "Just heading out…" she tried to sound as casual as she could, but her mom said immediately,

"No. No you can't go for a run."

"Mom! I need to run, I need to stay in shape and get exercise and...and ….. I just have to!" She sounded about twelve years old, but she just couldn't help herself, she was desperate to keep moving.

"I'm sorry, Claire. Absolutely no physical activity while you're still in your full-length cast." Her mom responded unfazed by her whining.

Claire didn't know what to do. She needed to keep moving, she had to, or she was going to break down. Again. And it was coming. She could feel it, and she was trying her best to just shove it back down but without the physical feeling of moving to help her, she didn't think that she could contain it.

And then Quil walked in. He just walked in the door, took one look at her on the stairs in her running outfit with her broken arm strapped to herself and said,

"What do you think you're doing?"

Her mom answered before she could,

"Claire was just telling me how she thinks she needs to go for a run a week after she broke her arm in two places."

"Yeah, no. You can't do that, Claire." Quil immediately said.

It was coming, Claire could feel the breakdown coming back up. She needed to be moving, running, feeling the motion to keep things down. Suddenly she had an idea. She took every last ounce of strength she had and pushed everything back down as far as she could. Then she walked the rest of the way down the stairs, grabbed her purse, jacket and keys from where she had left them on the kitchen table the day before. She quickly turned to Quil and said in a serious voice,

"'Kay, let's go."

"Um, where are we going?" he asked confused.

"First Beach." She answered confidently.

"We are?" He asked obviously surprised.

She was losing strength rapidly. She didn't have time to explain things to people. She needed to be moving already. She refused to breakdown because she was explaining her rationale instead of in action already. Maybe she could just bypass Quil and take her mom's car… no, her mom wouldn't let her drive with just her left arm… maybe she could take an Uber… but she still didn't have a phone yet… it didn't matter, she would figure it out… she just had to go. Go NOW.

She just completely gave up on trying to have a conversation with anyone and started to walk past Quil when he quickly caught her arm and asked,

"Claire? I thought we were going to First Beach?"

She immediately said without thinking, "I am. You can do whatever you want, Quil."

"Claire!" Said her mom offended by her abruptness.

She didn't have time for this. Couldn't they see that she was falling apart? That at any second she would end up sobbing on the floor. Broken. She just closed her eyes and started shaking her head, not trusting herself to speak. _Stuff it down. Stuff it down._ She thought to herself like a mantra. Somehow through all of that she heard her mom say.

"Claire, that was a little rude. I think you need to-"

"It's okay, Susan." Quil cut her off, "I got this. I'll take her to La Push right now."

Claire opened her eyes to see her mom exchange a loaded glance with Quil that seemed to be communicating something silently before she said,

"Don't let her do anything physical."

"She won't." He agreed while pulling his keys back out of his pocket.

That was the only sign Claire needed, she turned and walked out the door and to Quil's car as fast as she could without actually running. Quil used the remote to unlock the car so that she wouldn't have to wait for him to catch up to her. She immediately pulled the door opened and slid into the car. She was about to reach back over with her left hand to pull the door closed but Quil was already there. He had caught up to her and was shutting the door for her. So instead she just reached up and grabbed her seatbelt before yanking it across her, cast and all, and snapping it home in the buckle as Quil got in the driver's seat and started the car in one smooth motion. It took him less than two seconds to pull the car out and for them to finally be moving.

Claire was finally feeling the movement that she so desperately needed and was immensely grateful for it. She immediately leaned forward and rolled her window half way down even though it was January, and freezing, and raining. She had thrown her jacket in the backseat with her purse. She didn't care. The cold air helped her feel the motion she needed as she continued to think, _Shove it down, Shove it down._

She was trying to channel the air on her face, to push it through to her very core. To her soul. And for it to rush through her and back out taking her pain along with it.

It wasn't until Quil put his warm hand on the back of her head and said calmly, "Breathe. Just breathe." that she realized she was hyperventilating. Gasping for breath. Her lungs felt too small. Her need for a break-down felt bigger than her. She had shoved it down inside herself and now there was no room for her essential organs. Her lungs couldn't fill. Her heart couldn't beat around it.

She pulled her feet onto the seat while she lifted her left hand up to her head with her elbow out in an effort to expand her lungs. She could hear her gasping getting faster instead of slower. She leaned into her legs and put her head between her knees. It wasn't until she felt the heat under her left hand and arm against all the cold air rushing through the car that she realized Quil's hand was still on her head. She had unintentionally placed her hand on top of it, holding it there. She moved her hand away as soon as she realized it and wrapped it around her legs and knees so that he didn't have to be touching her. He seemed to sense her withdrawal and slowly pulled his hand away from her. As soon as he did Claire pulled her left hand tighter around her knees and on top of her head so that she was in as close to fetal position that she could be while still sitting in the seat.

Her breathing was still accelerating. She had been focused on trying to slow it down but instead she switched gears to trying to focus on taking big breaths. That helped. Her breathing slowly decelerated as she continued to take big breaths in. After a few moments of progress, she started trying to blow a big breath out after she took one in.

She was fairly sure that this was a Lamaze technique and actually laughed one rough "Hah!" as she thought about her head between her knees with her legs apart and doing Lamaze breathing likes she was in labor. After about thirty more seconds of focused breathing she realized that the cold air in the car was no longer whipping around her or screaming in her ears. She pulled her head up an inch or so to see that Quil had pulled the car over to the side of a road only about three blocks from her house to watch her while she tried to contain everything with inside herself.

"Just drive, Quil!" She said quickly between breathes.

She thought he was going to argue but instead he just sat in silence for a second. She couldn't see him with her head back between her knees, but he put the car in drive and started out again on their twenty-minute drive to La Push and First Beach.

It took another five minutes of focused effort before Claire was able to get her breathing back to normal. By that time, she was freezing sitting with the window rolled down and getting wet from the drizzling rain that was splashing into the car. Quil hadn't touched her again but left her in a freezing cocoon to breathe. She finally lifted her head up. They were at about the half way point in the drive.

Claire decided her need for warmth had finally outweighed her need for air and she reached across herself awkwardly with her left hand to roll up the window. As soon as she did Quil reached into the back seat and grabbed her jacket, and then all but chucked it at her. As soon as the window was up it became deadly silent in the car, especially compared to the noise of roaring wind that had been filling it before. Claire shoved her left arm in her jacket and then just threw the rest of it behind and around her as she used her left arm to pull it over her sling. She grabbed the bottom and was about to try to zip it closed with her left hand when she saw how badly it was shaking. She knew that the shakes weren't from the cold, she felt more numb than cold. She immediately gave up on trying to zip it and just threw her arm around her, holding her jacket closed against her body.

Quil quickly turned the heater on and blasted it so it was blowing out at them which initially made it worse by blowing out cold air before it warmed up. Once the heater started blowing warm air the car warmed up quickly. Claire could feel herself getting warm, but she couldn't stop herself from shaking. She was quivering all over here body. Finally, Quil spoke for the first time in the fifteen minutes since he had first told her to breath when they left the house.

"Have you ever had a panic attack before?" He asked her.

She shook her head as she said softly, "Never." She couldn't stop the shakes radiating out from her.

"That's what I thought." He said in a cold voice, "Have you had anything to eat today?" he continued.

She shook her head again and said, "No." in a voice so small it shocked her.

He nodded his head and said, "Your blood sugar is low, that's why you can't stop the shakes. Hold on, I'll stop at the gas station in Forks and get you something."

Since they had already past the turn off to Forks he had to turn the car around and go back a bit.

She just nodded, and was silent for a second before she asked,

"How do you know so much about it?"

"My mom used to have panic attacks that first year after my dad left." He explained quickly.

He had never told her that before. She knew that his dad had left of course, but since he didn't like to think about it much they had only talked about it a few times.

They pulled into the gas station then and Quil quickly hopped out, but left the car running with Claire in it. As soon as he got out of the car, she took the opportunity to grab the controls and turn off the heat. She was getting uncomfortably hot now, even if she couldn't stop the shakes. Quil was back a moment later and slid back into the car before handing her a Coke and an apple and putting a box of donuts on the dash.

"Here eat this." He said as he handed her the apple.

She was already drinking the Coke, but she took it and took a bite out of it before she asked,

"Why can't I have those?" she nodded toward the donuts.

"Because those are for me." He said seriously.

It wasn't until he started laughing that she realized he was joking. She almost laughed, she meant to, but she just didn't have enough in her to make it happen. She did realize that it was the first time she had heard Quil laugh in four months. She hadn't realized how much she missed it.

She ate her apple and drank her Coke as Quil drove her to First Beach. It was quiet in the car without the sound of the heater, but she just sat there silently curled up with her legs still up on the seat in front of her.

As soon as they got there she knew that she had been right to come. She had missed this place, and it held the perfect amount of movement she was looking for. The waves came in and out constantly, and the rain hit the sand and the rocks, and the seagulls flew around constantly over head looking for food. It was dreary and gray and cold, but she didn't care. She just got out of the car without a backwards glance.

She had so many amazing childhood memories here, and they all centered around Quil, which is why it was strange to her that this place could feel so much like Bennett and bring her so much peace, but it did. It was so alive, and constant, and beautiful in a non-traditional way, just like him. She had picked it for its movement, but it was the right place because of the way it felt so much like him.

She walked away from the car with Quil still in it, without looking back. She just headed straight for the beach. When the cold air hit her bare shoulders, she realized her open jacket had slid off her right shoulder and was hanging off her left arm. She just held her arm out and let it fall to the ground. She walked directly forward, across the pebbled beach until she got to the point where the pebbles turn to sand before it hits the water. There she just crouched down and put her hand on top of the compacted sand. She had needed to feel it. Feeling it somehow felt like touching him from afar. So, she just stayed there crouched down in her yellow tank top with the built-in bra and running tights and hot pink Nikes, in the probably thirty-degree weather with the mist from the sea hitting her face while touching the beach.

She sent all of her love, and regret, and apologies, and wishes, and hurt that she had for Bennett. She just sat there and sent it to him while being as close to him as she could. It came out in pulses in synch with the waves. Everything that had built in her, she pored it out -her whole soul- she gave to the shore and the waves because she could never give it to the person she wanted to. The person who it belonged to.

She didn't know how long she stayed there in that position before she felt the giant ball of emotion that that morning had formed into a chaos that could destroy her, empty. It might have been an hour, maybe more. But eventually she pulled her hand back up from the sand and wiped it on her pants before she wiped a few silent tears off her face. She slowly tried to stand up in a creaky wobble, she had been crouched down for a long time. She made it to a standing position okay and stood staring out at the water for a second before she got cold being fully exposed to the wind and mist. She turned around quickly to find Quil. Now that she thought about it, she was surprised that he had been able to go so long without trying to comfort or at least warm her.

She couldn't find him at first. He wasn't by the car or anywhere around her, and neither was her jacket.

She looked around herself some more and spotted him down the beach about a hundred yards away. He was by the tree line, pacing back and forth with his head down and her jacket in his hand. That explained why he hadn't come up to her. He probably had to walk so far away just to stop himself.

She smiled a little to herself at the thought, he always seemed to know what she needed even when it against the grain for him. She knew she was far from healed, but she felt lighter than she had in three days and was grateful for the ability to smile at simple things again. She walked down the beach to him. He didn't notice her until she was a few yards away.

"Hey!" he said relieved.

She just gave him a small smile,

"Can I have that?" she said pointing at her jacket.

She was probably turning blue by now. He quickly closed the gap between them and threw her jacket around her before immediately zipping it all the way up. She noticed his hesitation to touch her and found herself grateful for the space he was giving her. She wiggled and wormed her left arm up in her jacket until she got to the sleeve and pushed it through.

"Want to walk?" she asked while making eye contact with him for probably the first time that day.

"Yeah." He agreed quickly.

They started making their way slowly down the beach. Probably because of the poor weather they were the only ones there. After a few minutes of silence, Claire stopped to pick up a flat stone from the ground before sighing and saying,

"I have to go back to school tomorrow."

Quil had stopped when she did and was turned facing towards her as she faced the water and tried to do a left-hand throw to skip the stone that failed miserably. He didn't say anything, he just stood there watching her in silence. She sighed again, and said,

"I'll have to wear a stupid cast for at least six more weeks."

She looked up to see a look cross his face that showed his confusion in her change in direction.

"Kids at school, they think the accident was his fault. The cast will just be a constant reminder that before we broke up we were in the accident. They'll blame him." She explained.

"It wasn't his fault. The accident wasn't his fault." Quil said softly.

Claire looked up at him surprised. She knew that, but it wasn't what she was expecting from him.

"I've seen it. The accident… I've seen it in his head. When the bus hit you and you lost consciousness and he was pinned, screaming for help." Quil said with a shudder.

Claire was stunned. She knew all about the wolf-telepathy, but she hadn't seemed to think about Quil in Bennett's head and vice versus. She just nodded and stood in thoughtful silence for a few minutes before she asked,

"Have you seen a lot of things in his head? About me?" her voice had been steady but Quil looked away and didn't seem to want to make eye contact.

"Some…" he admitted with a shrug, "He can't think about you without being shut down by his wolf instincts, but he still wants to, he still tries."

She nodded again while looking back out over the water.

"Is he in pain?" she asked softly.

"No. Not physically." He answered quickly.

She breathed for a few moments and then asked,

"What some?"

She turned to look at him when he didn't answer and saw confusion on his face.

"You said some, what did you see?" she clarified.

He shrugged again, "Mostly flashes. You smiling, you cheering at his baseball game… when he told you he loved you… something about you slapping him when he accidentally unhooked your bra in the back of his car…" he admitted sheepishly.

Claire knew that she should be embarrassed by this, but she wasn't. She just smiled at the memory. That's all they would have now, just memories, and she refused to be ashamed of any of them.

She nodded again as she looked back at the water lost in her thoughts of him.

It was silent for a moment and then Quil asked in an uncertain voice,

"Claire?"

She looked at him, he seemed nervous to say whatever it was he wanted to.

"Yeah?" she prodded.

He took a deep breath seeming to brace himself before he looked at her and asked in one breath, "Did my kissing you last night make this worse for you today?"

She actually laughed before she answered, "Oh, Quil, get over yourself! Not everything is about you and me!"

She said it in a lighter tone than she had used with him since before seeing him again on Friday night.

He looked decidedly relieved by her answer.

He reached down and wrapped his big warm hand around her small one the way he always had. She let him hold it for a moment, mostly to give him peace and comfort, before she pulled it away and started walking down the beach again. She didn't look to see his reaction to her pulling away from him again. She didn't want to know. She had enough pain to deal with without taking on any of his potential pain as well and she just wasn't at place with him yet that she could handle him holding her hand again. She just kept staring out over the water as he followed her.

After about twenty minutes of silently making a slow crawl down the beach while pausing to toss stones occasionally, she turned to face him. She knew she was catching him off guard, but her mind had been turning a lot over the past few minutes and she had made a decision before she said,

"Alright, I want to know."

"Know what?" he asked surprised.

"How many?" she asked bracing herself.

"How many what?" he asked confused.

"How many women." she replied.

"I'm lost, Claire." He told her honestly.

She blew out a frustrated breath and said,

"I want to know how many women you've had sex with."

He seemed completely shocked and put off and said quickly,

"I don't want to talk about it. Ever."

 _Uh-oh_ , Claire immediately thought. That definitely wasn't a sign he had nothing to hide.

"Wow. Okay then." She said miffed as she started walking away again.

She knew it was an extremely personal question, but he had put her through and asked a lot of her lately and she felt she deserved to know.

"Claire, wait! I'm sorry! That was just my knee jerk reaction, but we can talk about it. We always said no secrets, right? What do you want to know?" he said quickly running to catch back up to her.

"I want to know how many women you have had sex with! I think I have a right to know! You want me to get over what happened with Leah? Well I need to know…. how many there were and when and where this was happening. I mean, GAH! I let you sleep in my bed with me!" -she shuddered visibly at the thought- "I need to know how much cross over there was." She finished with a small huff.

He smiled for a second like something was funny before he said earnestly,

"Claire, the last time I had sex was the day before I met you."

She just gave him her most skeptical look immediately and he said,

"I'm serious! I think you seriously got the wrong idea after what happened with Leah, but really, Claire! It's been fourteen-years!"

She had to digest that for a moment. She wasn't even sure that she truly believed him until she heard herself say,

"That must have been hard."

She was shocked that she was actually teasing him. And using innuendos to do it! That wasn't like her. She hadn't even meant it in a dirty way….. well, mostly she hadn't. Maybe just a little bit she had wanted to make him feel some of the discomfort she had been feeling since finding him with Leah. He was frozen for a second before his face broke into a huge grin and he grabbed her side under the sling and started tickling her as he said,

"'Must have been hard!' You think you're so funny, don't you!?"

She laughed and tried to squirm away as she continued,

"I'm serious! Are we sure you're okay? That can't be healthy, I mean you could have fathered a child who is know themselves having sex in that amount of time!" She laughed.

He then grabbed both of her sides from behind and tickled her mercilessly while he said, "Oh! You got jokes now, huh? You got jokes? Hitting the age and the celibacy at the same time! Wow, what's next, my size?" he laughed as she squealed when he hit her soft spot that was most ticklish.

She realized in that moment that maybe they really could be good together. Maybe when she was ready, they really could be solid if she was willing to give it a chance. She sighed as she finished laughing and he pulled his hands away, clearly not wanting to hurt her or her arm again. As he pulled away she reached out with her left hand and grabbed his, sliding her fingers between the space where his thumb and index finger met as she asked,

"Are you ready to go home?"


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

 **Quil:**

Quil was almost indescribably happy when Claire surprised him with her hand. But he knew better than to push her by mentioning it or doing too much to react to it. He had just nodded in response to her question with a smile on his lips that he couldn't contain and led her back toward the Camaro with her small cold hand in his large hot one. He felt relieved to finally feel that he was back to being a solid presence in her life again. They had only been around each other again for about forty hours but it had taken that whole time to get anywhere close to being Quil and Claire again. Quil was okay with that though. He had actually figured it would take her weeks to get to this place with him again, not days.

As they walked the half mile back to the car, Quil dropped her hand and placed his bare arm around her shoulder to warm her. He had hated how cold she had looked all day on the beach and in the car with just her sheer running clothes and refusing to let him close to keep her warm. She was shaking like a leaf before she finally found him on the beach with her jacket, and even then, she had rather warm herself slowly with her own body heat than let him close to her. It was a relief to feel her small frame start to warm by degrees around him.

They walked together in silence for a few moments with Quil's arm wrapped securely around Claire's shoulder. He could feel the way she was slightly off-balance by the bulky cast reminding him again of the accident.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"Weren't where?" she asked him confused.

"At the hospital with you. You know I would have come, right?" he told her while still feeling frustrated with the situation.

"I know… I'm sorry my mom didn't call you, it was probably my fault she didn't." she told him guiltily.

He didn't want her to blame herself or her mom, truthfully it didn't matter to him whose fault it was.

"Just….. just promise you'll never do something like that again, okay? No matter how mad at me you are, I _NEED_ to know if something happens to you, alright?" He said upset, he had to stop a few tears from spilling from his eyes just at the thought of something else happening to her without him there. He quickly cleared his throat to clear away the sudden emotion at the thought.

"I promise." She said sincerely while looking up at him, "You were the only one I wanted to be there. I mean I needed to know that Bennett was okay first, but once I knew he was, I just wanted you there to hold my hand."

Quil blew out a deep breath before he said,

"Well you'll never have to be without me again, okay?"

"Well let's just pray that I never have to re-brake my arm again." She responded a little sarcastically.

"What?"

He had no idea what she was talking about, but he didn't like the way it sounded.

She blew out a painful breath and explained, "To set my arm correctly they had to re-break it. My mom wanted to stay with me… I wouldn't let her, but before she left I asked if you could be with me when they did it…. that's when I thought you hadn't come… But Gah!" -she shuddered vividly at the obviously painful memory- "It was awful, Quil. I've never felt so much pain all at once." She finished in a whisper.

He had to stop walking. He was shaking so badly that he was shaking Claire with him. He immediately dropped his arm from around her and bent down and over curling in on himself, trying to contain it. The thought of Claire alone and in so much pain was just too much. The wolf was coming, he was losing control. He could feel the deep heat burning in his naval where it always started before he phased.

He was trying desperately to bring it back into himself, but he had already lost it and he could feel it growing. Exponentially. Like a nuclear bomb, where the electrons multiply until they reach critical mass, he was reaching critical mass.

He was just about to burst with loss of control until Claire surprised him. She grabbed his chin in her left hand and yelled,

"HEY! LOOK AT ME!"

She had crouched down right in front of him.

He took a deep breath in and tried to comply, struggling to see her behind the red haze of vision and shakes. He was grateful she had yelled so that he could hear her over the blood rushing through his ears.

"Quil! Focus on me! Only on me!" she told him authoritatively.

It was Claire. There was Claire. She was with him again. And he had to focus because he was with her. He was with Claire again. He breathed to himself as he felt the heat starting to recede.

"That's it. Keep going." She said calmly.

He placed his shaking hands on her legs, drawing strength from touching her and closed his eyes. He forced himself to focus on the feel of her in his hands and the sound of her voice that he had missed for so long.

"I'm here! I'm here, we're together. There's nothing to be upset about, right?" she told him soothingly as she ran her hand through his hair.

He was finally regaining control and forcing the waves of heat and shudders back deep inside of himself.

He took another giant gulp of air and then was completely still for one calm moment.

He finally looked up at her crouched directly in front of him.

She smiled with relieve before she placed her hand in his beard and scratched his chin as she softly said, "Good boy."

Relieved, he smiled at her joke until he was completely rocked by another emotion. He immediately dropped his hands off her thighs and stood up before he took a huge step back.

"What the hell, Claire!? Why would you _do_ that!?" he yelled at her.

She was shocked and didn't react at all for a second before she stood up and asked,

"What?"

"You _CAN'T_ be that close to me when I lose control like that! You _KNOW_ that! You're not a child anymore! How could you do something so unbelievably stupid! Do you have any idea what could have happened to you!?" he railed into her.

She rolled her eyes, "You would never hurt me Quil, and you didn't even lose control, so don't lose your cool now." She said a little sarcastically.

These past few days she had seemed so much older to him, so much more mature, but in that moment, she seemed exactly what she was; a naive, innocent, sometimes even stupid, sixteen-year-old girl.

He took deep breath to try to calm himself as he looked down at her, but then thought, _Nope, I can't even look at her right now_. and turned and started to walk back to the car.

"Hey! Are really that mad because I kept you from phasing?" she called after him with disbelieve clear in her voice.

"Yes, Claire! I am!" he said without looking back.

"What? Why!?" she asked completely dumbfounded while jogging to keep up with him.

He stopped and flipped around to face her.

"Do you think Sam would ever do anything to intentionally hurt Emily? Huh? No! But she was standing too close when he lost control. You _CAN'T_ be around me- any of the wolves- when I– we- lose control." He was flustered and shaking again.

This girl was determined to kill him with stress today! He had had to watch her have a panic attack, then a ninety-minute extensional crisis while becoming borderline hypothermic, she had found out how much he had violated her privacy by seeing directly into her boyfriend's head, asked detailed questions about his sexual history, and shared her most physically painful memory with him while laying it on him that all she had wanted in that moment was for him to be with her! Now she was pulling dangerous stunts and risking her safety around him. He didn't think he could take much more.

She surprised him by suddenly throwing herself at him. She was standing there while he yelled at her one second and the next second she was hugging him with her left arm wrapped up around him and her right arm crushed up against him. She had wrapped her arm up over his shoulder and had her fingers in his hair, and had laid her head against his shoulder facing into his neck while standing on her toes

He stood shocked for a second by her attack but then quickly grabbed her as the pure relief washed over him from being able to actually hold her. He wrapped his long arms all the way around her back until one hand was on her waist pulling her tighter to him and lifting her weight up off her toes, and the other was cradling her head to his shoulder. He had to try to remember not to crush her arm between them or else he would probably be using all of his strength to hold her tightly to him. All the fire went out of him, completely extinguished by the relief of _finally_ being able to feel her close and hold her in his arms again for the first time in months.

This girl knew exactly how to work him. She could get away with anything and he would never be upset with her if she would just simply give him the relief of feeling her safe and secure in the embrace of his arms. He blew out a giant breath of air that had contained all his worry, stress, and frustration.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear sending chills down his back, "I wasn't thinking. I just wanted you to be alright, but I should have thought…. I should have known better…. I'm sorry."

He just rolled his eyes as he held her. Of course, _she_ would be worried about _him_ not being alright. She was basically a giant mess that was probably only being held together by her massive cast, and she was worried he wouldn't be alright if he lost control and… what? Turned into a giant wolf for the hundred-millionth time.

"Claire, let's just focus on getting you alright for now. Alright, honey? I'm going to be fine." He whispered back to her exasperated.

She just nodded against him.

Calming down he noticed for the first time that holding her now felt different than all the times he had held her in the past. She seemed taller, and thinner, like she had been stretched slightly, and she smelled just ever so slightly different, but he wasn't quite sure how.

After a long moment of letting him hold her she said, "Alright, Quil, I'm not dying!"

For the first time in his memory he felt slightly…. embarrassed in front of Claire. He hadn't meant to hold her for so long. He had gotten caught up in noticing the changes in her scent and body he had become distracted and she had caught him at it.

He immediately set her back on her feet and took a deep breath to shake it off before he grabbed just her hand again and said,

"Okay, I need some food. Want to see what my life was like when _I_ was in high school?"

She smiled at him intrigued. "Yeah. I mean, I didn't know they had real food back then, just like roasted lamb's legs and mana, right?"

He laughed, "Ugh! Again, with the age jokes!? Is this like you're new thing now? Poke fun at the old guy?"

She laughed. "Only the one's who aren't aging!" she had teased but suddenly her face fell like she had just realized he wasn't the only boy who was older than her and no longer aging.

Quil sighed. They were _so_ _close_. He wondered how long Bennett's presence would lie between them like a hot electric blanket they couldn't ignore and that always kept them from feeling truly comfortable. He knew she would need time to heal but he hoped that they could get back to what they had been so that she would at least have him during the process.

He chose to ignore her reaction and wrapped his arm back around her as he said, "You know I'm not actually _that_ old, right?".

It took her a second, but she seemed to come back to him. She smiled and replied,

"No, you are! I think you are just too close to the situation to see clearly."

He laughed relieved she was engaging with him again, "Oh is that it? _I_ have a warped perspective about age?"

She just nodded at him, but she seemed more like her old self. Not quite the same but her true nature was definitely still there. All of the defining characteristics that Quil had always associated as being what made her _Claire_ were still there. There were just some other things too. Some good and some bad, like her pain and hurt. But he was relieved to feel like he had finally found _her_ again.

"You know most of the men on _PEOPLE's sexiest men alive_ list are over thirty?"

She laughed sincerely and said, "How do you know that!?"

"Hey! I know things! And I have had a lot more magazine perusing time these last few months." He told her pretending to be serious.

She laughed, "So, is that what all this has been about?" she chuckled as she grabbed his shirt and lifted it up to reveal his incredibly toned stomach and chest, "Are you trying to make _PEOPLE's sexiest men over thirty_ list?"

"Hey!" he said pulling his shirt back down. "Watch the bod, alright?" he teased "And its definitely just _sexiest men ALIVE_ not _over thirty_ , and alright sure, I'll admit that if they called and asked I would _probably_ pose for the cover, but that's just to share my gifts with the world."

She laughed as he let go off her. They had made it to the car and he opened her door for her before she slid in and he closed it after her. As he walked around the front of the car he could still hear her laugh echoing in his ears. It kept a smile on his face.

"Seriously, Quil? You used to eat here, like a lot?" she asked him ten minutes later as they sat down in his favorite booth. "I mean I don't have very high standards and I'm telling you this place looks questionable."

He chuckled as he watched her take in the dinginess of the place.

"Really. Embry, Jake and I used to eat here all the time! It's great, I promise." He told her of the small diner that had been his favorite in his teens.

Even then it had seemed old and questionable and it hadn't gotten any better with time. For some reason there was still mismatched wall paper peeling off the walls and the blinds at the window of his favorite booth were _still_ broken. He just smiled, feeling nostalgic about those years that had past quickly away from him.

"So, what is it you guys liked about this place?" she asked sincerely.

"Well, the food is good, surprisingly so I promise, and…." He trailed off with a shrug.

"And….. what?" she mimicked his trail off.

"And…. It was a good place to pick up girls." He admitted with a grin.

He had never really talked about that part of his life with her before. He wasn't even sure why he was now. Maybe it was just the nostalgia about being back to a place he had spent a lot of time at around that age. He hadn't even been here in years. He and Embry used to still come a lot, even after they were wolves with different lives than those teenaged boys had had. But then Embry had gone back to U-Dub with Arabella and Quil had just sort of stopped coming, especially once he no longer lived in La Push and Claire's bed time was no longer seven-thirty.

"Whew Quil!" Claire cheered with an impressed smile.

She started looking around instantly for potential.

"Hmm. I really don't see a good market here… Are you sure this really happened?" she said giving him more of a hard time.

He laughed. "There are like fifteen teenaged girls in that corner back there."

She just gave him a strange look, "That's a little weird, Quil."

He threw up his hands and laughed at her response. "Why is that weird, Claire?" he asked as he laughed.

"I don't know it's just weird to think of you hitting on teenaged girls." She told him with a little shudder.

"Wow. You really do think of me as old! I was a teenager once, Claire. I wasn't just born like this." He gestured down at his body.

"I don't know, you have literally looked exactly like that my entire life…. Well, except not quite so…" she trailed off as she gestured toward his torso again.

"Sexy?" he asked with a laugh.

She grinned at him, "Sure, Quil, so sexy."

He smiled at her willingness to boost his ego and then grew a little more serious as he said,

"No, you're right. That must have been strange, you growing up and changing constantly while I stayed exactly the same. It is kind of weird being frozen. I guess I've just gotten used to it over so many years."

"Yeah, maybe a little…. I guess I just always liked the consistency though." She said with a smile.

He appreciated her being willing to put a sweet positive spin on all the weird things that being a wolf did to him. He smiled at her as the waitress finally showed up to take their order.

After they had ordered, and the waitress had left Claire asked,

"So, what were you like….? Before you were this, I mean."

"Um slightly less huge..." he said and she laughed.

"I really liked girls." He admitted to her as she raised an eyebrow, intrigued at this new idea of him. "Yeah, I know. I was pretty shallow… I even tried to flirt with Bella when Jake first started bringing her around La Push."

He laughed at the look on her face, "She was still human back then." He assured her.

"Wow, that sounds so … not like you… at least not like the you that I've always known." She told him a little unbelievingly.

"Well I wasn't the _me_ that you have always known. I changed a lot when I imprinted. I guess you can take credit for making me a better man." He told her.

She chuckled but then asked, "Why do you think you changed so much?"

"What do you mean?" he asked giving her a slightly skeptical look.

"Well, I have never filled that role in your life. The liking girls part. So why did you stop? Did it just go away?" she asked.

He waited a second as she thanked the waitress who dropped off their shakes and told them their food would be right out,

"Pretty much. Once I saw your face I just never saw another face again." He told her honestly before taking a huge pull from his shake. It was better than he remembered, he looked up to see her with a huge smile on her face.

"What?" he asked surprised.

"That was just a really sweet sentiment." She explained.

"It's not a sentiment, Claire. It's the truth, you have just always been everything I needed. I NEED you, but when you're there with me consistently, I never feel like I'm missing anything in my life. That's how we all feel about our imprints. They just make us complete." He tried to explain to her as best he could.

"Well that's a lot to drop on a girl the first time you take her to a shabby diner." She teased him.

Quil laughed as the waitress brought their food over. They started eating at that point and Quil had been focused on his Monte Carlo when he heard Claire say,

"Wow, okay I get it. This place is pretty good. I think these might be the best fries I have ever had. Wait, did she take the menu? Where's the menu?"

Quil who agreed with what she had just said, tried not to choke since he was laughing with his mouth stuffed with food but reached over to grab a menu behind the ketchup holder and handed it to Claire. She looked at it for a second before she gasped and said,

"They have chili fries with cut up hot dogs on top! We have to get those! Where is the waitress at! Oh, there she is with those girls… crap, I don't remember her name. What was her name, Quil?"

Quil had finally managed to swallow what might have been the world's largest bite and said, "I just told you that I don't see anybody else's face besides yours and you think I'll remember the waitress's name?"

She just stuck her tongue out at him good-naturedly and settled for raising her hand with a, "Miss! Excuse me."

Quil laughed at her as the waitress came back over, Claire ordered the chili fries and a chocolate shake in a to-go cup.

"Wow, you really need two shakes, Claire? That seems like a lot for you. You haven't grown _that_ much." He noticed while teasing her some more.

She rolled her eyes and said, "It's for Rachel or Jamie, one of them will want it or they can share. So…. I want to see it." She told him with a smile.

"Alright, but just this one time, Claire. You can't keep doing this." He teased her as he lifted his shirt up to show her his chest and stomach again. He had no idea what she was actually talking about but just wanted to hear her laugh again.

It worked. She started laughing ridiculously hard. A little too hard for Quil's liking, as if the idea of her ever wanting to actually see more of his body was hilarious.

"Okay, it's not _that_ funny!" he told her laughing, "You know some people actually think I have a nice body!"

"I'll say so!" said the waitress as she brought Claire's shake and chili fries to their table.

He looked up at her shocked and she winked at him. She was in her early twenties and Quil supposed that she was pretty, that didn't mean he felt anything for her.

"Um.. thanks." said Quil as he looked back over at Claire who had huge eyes and was pressing her lips together trying hard not to laugh in front of the waitress.

"You bet." She said confidently, "You know there's a group of his here on the rez. that go dancing at a club in Treeport on Friday nights, you should come sometime."

Quil who was shocked and flattered, couldn't believe that his muscles, that he had only flashed for Claire's benefit, could land him this type of invitation. Especially in front of her. They were eating lunch alone together on a Sunday. He knew that he was thirty-one, but he didn't look that much older than Claire, especially since he had noticed that at some point over the last few months she had started to look like she was about twenty years old. It would still be reasonable to assume in this setting that they were together. He couldn't believe that this waitress would come on to him when he was so obviously with another girl.

Trying to be tactful and not completely blow the waitress off he said, "Yeah thanks, but I'm in a pretty committed relationship." As he turned to look at Claire who blushed a little.

"Okay!" she said unfazed, "Well if that changes and you ever want to come, let me know." She finished with a wink before walking away.

He immediately turned his shocked eyes on Claire who burst out laughing the second the waitress was out of ear shot.

"Wow!" she said still laughing.

"I know, right!?" Quil said exasperated, now that the waitress was gone it did seemed a lot funnier though.

"I 'sede to you master Jedi!" she told him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked dubiously.

"I mean, I said I wanted to see how you picked up the girls and I definitely just did!" she was laughing again, "I mean, I thought that you had some bad lines or something but now I know why you never used to wear shirts when I was a kid! You just flash that chest and they do all the work, huh?!"

He looked down at his t-shirt as he processed her comment and was stunned that that was her observation of the exchange. She started laughing again and he looked back up at her before she said, "You're like a co'ed at Daytona beach trying to win a wet t-shirt contest!"

He had to laugh at that analogy. He wanted to deny everything she had said but if he was being honest he knew that his muscles had a lot to do with his ability to pick up girls in his younger days.

She stopped laughing after a couple minutes and grew serious before she said,

"You didn't have to tell her that about the committed relationship though, we're not. You can go out with people too, you know… if you want."

She hadn't been looking at him when she said it and he didn't know how to honestly explain to her that he never wanted to be with anyone else but her for the rest of his life without coming on way too strong and freaking her out, so instead he just said,

"Oh, I wasn't talking about you."

She looked up at him a little surprised and maybe a little hurt.

"I was talking about my fourteen-year-old love-child that is already having sex. Yeah he really needs a stronger fatherly role in his life." He told her as she started laughing again.

After that he paid quickly without leaving a tip on the table until Claire slapped his chest and said, "Quil!" so he rolled his eyes and threw down another five as Claire said, "Thank you!" He saw their waitress heading back toward the hostess stand that they would have to walk past to leave. He grabbed Claire's hand and made sure to lead her out in front of her.

She had been in the middle of saying a cheery, "Have a nice day!" when she saw Quil's hand around Claire's and her eyes about doubled in size before she did a double take and then an obvious check out of Claire who she seemed to have grossly underestimated. Claire just rolled her eyes at her.

The entire exchange hadn't seemed to bother her at all, she had just taken it all in stride. It had bothered Quil though, more than he even wanted to admit. Why would the waitress just assume that Claire wasn't _with_ him? She wasn't of course, but the waitress didn't know that. He was trying to shake it off as he helped her back in the car and turned to see the waitress still watching them through the glass door.

"Geeze, move on already." He muttered to himself as he went back around to the driver's side. He got back in the car feeling worked up. But then Claire asked, "What's wrong?" and he looked over at her. Somehow just being with her was enough to make him feel better.

"Nothing, I'm fine now." He said as he grabbed her hand again. He took a deep bracing breath and then said, "I do have something to tell you though. It's about Bennett…. and me actually…"

He felt her hand instantly get tense in his, but instead of pulling away she held on tighter to him like she was using him for support.

"What? Did something happen?" she asked already upset.

"No, nothing happened. It's about why he phased, why he was able to join the pack."

"What do you mean?"

He just blew out a breath and looked out the front shield before he continued,

"Bennett was able to become a wolf because he has Quileute blood…. from his father…. His biological father was my dad." He admitted to her.

"Ow!" Claire said suddenly. He looked over to see her looking down at their hands and realized that he had squeezed her hand when he told her about his dad. He immediately dropped it with a, "Sorry Claire!"

She didn't say anything, she seemed too engrossed in processing the news he had just told her.

"I wasn't even going to tell you. I didn't want anyone to know. But then Bennett's mom told him and now _all_ of the wolves know so I wanted you to hear about it from me." He told her.

"How did Bennett take it? He always wondered if his dad was really… you know… his dad." She surprised him by asking.

"Yeah, I mean he took it really well all things considered." He told her as he dragged his hand through his hair and then up his neck through his beard. "He told me he is 'psyched to be trained in the ways of the wolf by his older brother'."

That part had made Quil want to break something but to his surprise Claire started laughing.

"That's so Bennett!" she laughed, "How are you handling it?" she asked him more seriously as she put her hand in his hair, comforting him.

He just shrugged and then said, "I don't know, I mean it's not a shock that my dad would have another kid out there. Hell, we all know that more likely than not, Embry's my brother too but this one seemed to hit a little close to home, you know?"

She nodded sympathetically and then surprised him again by laughing.

"What?" he asked as he smiled at her.

"I'm sorry. I know it's not funny!" she said through her laughter, "It's just, what are the chances that the one guy I date would have half of your DNA!? Guess I just really have a type, don't I!?"

Quil suddenly started laughing too. He had never considered that aspect. He had just been pretty caught up in the Bennett was now his brother aspect and stopped there. It was actually kind of funny when he saw it the way Claire did. He started laughing harder as he thought about it. They just sat there in his car laughing together at the absurdity of their situation for a few minutes. She had left her hand in his hair behind his head and started to pull it back as she finished laughing and sighed deeply. He grabbed it in his hand and planted a quick kiss in her palm before he wrapped his hand around it and said,

"Alright. You ready to go home now? That shake isn't going to last much longer before I drink it."

She just smiled at him for a second like she was somehow seeing him for the first time.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, let's go!"

So, he dropped her hand to put the car in drive and pull out. As soon as they were back on the road and on their way she slid her hand back into his where it rested next to the gear shift. He looked down surprised and then turned to look at her. She was looking down at their hands too, but she looked up to meet his eye and then smiled at him.

 **Claire:**

The next day Claire did indeed go back to school. Bennett wasn't there of course since he still hadn't gained enough control to be out in a public setting yet. He was such a bubbly-goofy person that people always noticed his absence and Claire had to field questions about him all day long. She got increasingly uncomfortable with each question and told everyone that asked that he was still in Cleveland with his dad. She just couldn't bring herself to start spreading the news that they had broken up. It just felt like a lie.

They hadn't broken up. They weren't together, but they hadn't broken up. No words were said. They hadn't even seen each other. There was no closure. She knew it would probably be physically painful not to mention extremely emotionally confusing for him to see her now. She knew that he still loved her but loving her now went against his very nature. It sucked.

She tried not to think about it, especially the part where as long as Quil was a wolf and the head of the pack she and Bennett would be involved in each other's lives. She had a relationship in some form with all of the wolves. _Except maybe Leah_ she thought critically. At least for the time being she wanted to have as little to do with Leah as she could. She didn't need her presence as a constant reminder of the worst night of Claire's life. Both because of what had happened between her and Quil and because of what had happened to Bennett that night.

The day at school had been rough because of what seemed to be unending questions about Bennett's whereabouts and because people were _still_ asking her questions about the accident and because today was her first day at school without Bennett, so she had to carry her own backpack on just her left shoulder which ached by the end of the day and carry her books and get into her locker with one arm. It was exhausting.

School had finally just ended, Claire looked down at her phone. Her dad had had her new phone waiting for her when she got home from her day with Quil yesterday. It was already set up with all her apps and contacts from the cloud complete with the adorable selfie of her and Bennett as her home screen. She was glad that Quil had just dropped her off and not come in with her and then seen her reaction. The picture was like a smack in the face reminder of her very recent past that was no more. She immediately decided to change the picture to something less painful.

She started scrolling through the pictures on her phone and was initially in even more pain. Every picture seemed to be of her and Bennett doing various activities. They looked so happy. She had to scroll back for months without ever zooming in to look at a specific picture to find one that didn't either have Bennett in it or was taken by him. Finally, as she was getting to the photos from homecoming she found one she liked. In the middle of all of the happy pictures of her and Bennett taking selfies in front of a photo booth backdrop was the picture that Quil had sent her.

It was the selfie that he had taken of them dancing together. The background of her room was completely dark, but you could see their faces clearly. She was in her dress still all made up with the stupid tiara in her hair. He didn't even have a shirt on and his shorter hair was a mess, but they looked good together. Not so much excited happy, like in the pictures of her with Bennett, but more just calm, at peace, comfortable in each other's arms. All that was really noticeable in the photo was Quil's inky black tribal tattoo on his bicep, chest, and shoulder of the arm holding his phone and their smiling faces. Nothing about the picture spoke of the emotional turmoil that that moment had been for both of them. That was what she liked best about it. She felt like her whole life was a constant moment of emotional turmoil right now and she liked the reminder of a moment of peace in the midst of it.

She had quickly set the picture as her background and then forgotten about it until every moment that she looked at her phone, which was currently a lot less than normal since no one knew that she had a phone again and she no longer had a boyfriend to text her constantly.

She had just pulled her phone out to check the time and saw the photo again as a reminder of a moment of peace. She took a breath. One day down. School was over. Quil had volunteered to pick her up from school and she agreed knowing that it would make him happy (which always made her happy) and it was better for her to have a set ride anyways. She hadn't given him a specific time and she decided that she could stay after for a few minutes before she called him.

She wanted to talk to her cheer coach and find out how they had done at their competition she had missed that weekend. She also needed to swallow her pride and find out what her realistic chances were of making the squad again next year when she had essentially left them hanging during their final most crucial hour of need.

Her coach was in a good mood and told her that they had still managed to do well despite her absence on the squad. They had actually asked Macy to come back on as Claire's replacement the week before. Claire was completely shocked that Macy herself hadn't told her this but figured that she probably didn't want to rub it in her face that she was taking Claire's spot right after her accident. Claire was trying desperately hard to just be happy for her friend and not think about how this might affect her chances of making the squad next year if she had already been replaced.

Coach couldn't promise her anything, it would all depend on how well try outs went but she told Claire that she had a lot of talent and was one of the few girls on the squad who everyone could get along with and that always counted for something too. Claire quickly started calculating that skills wise at least, she should be able to beat out Macy for her place on the squad and then felt immediately guilty. Macy was her friend, and there were plenty of seniors on the team graduating so there should be more than enough room for both of them next year. Even if Macy did beat her out for her spot she would just need to do her best to be happy for her and support her. After all, Macy had graciously supported her all year while she cheered, not to mention she had been understanding (after a while) when Claire had started dating Bennett.

 _Great, now I'm thinking about Bennett AGAIN._ Claire thought to herself. And then she froze where she stood. There he was. She had been walking down the hallway from her coach's office and Bennett was coming out of the office of his basketball coach (Claire didn't know his name). He hadn't noticed her yet, he was still talking to the coach as he backed out facing away from her,

"Yeah, I mean we'll see if the doctor clears me for next season but yeah I'm definitely out for the rest of this one…" she heard him say.

She was completely frozen. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She didn't think that Quil had even cleared him to be around people yet and she was completely unprepared to see him. And then it seemed like he caught the scent of her.

He had definitely never done that before. He was saying goodbye to the coach one second and then he just seemed to inhale and smell her. He froze mid-sentence and looked at her a little alarmed.

Now that he was looking at her, she couldn't believe how much he had changed. He was HUGE. At least two inches taller than he was on Friday and with almost twice as much muscle too. She could already see the large Quileute tribal tattoo that was almost as large as Quil's (every wolf had the same tattoo but Quil's was the largest for some reason and Bennett's now seemed to be a close second) and looked completely healed peeking out of the sleeve of his shirt on his right arm.

She could suddenly see the family resemblance to Quil. In hind sight she supposed that she should have recognized all of his warning signs before he phased. She was so familiar with the wolves that she should have known that the two-inch growth spurt he had had while they were dating wasn't normal… or that his high body temperature was a sign of what was to come. The problem was that she had never really spent any time around regular boys before, and she had spent a LOT of time around werewolves her entire life. So, boys feeling hot and being huge all seemed incredibly normal to her, and she had grown during that time too, so it was less noticeable to her.

Still, she definitely felt that she needed to shoulder some responsibility for not warning him as to what was coming for him. Especially when she had known that he didn't believe his dad Mike was really his father. She _SHOULD_ have known. She should have been on better terms with Quil and asked him about the warning signs, or better yet he could have recognized them himself being around Bennett while they were dating.

 _Does it matter now?_ _Would it have changed anything?_ She questioned herself as they just stood frozen staring at each other, both unsure of how to proceed after finding themselves unexpectedly alone in a hallway together.

"Hi." Claire said in her softest voice.

She had no idea how he was going to respond. She knew that any feelings he had for her were constantly being shut down in his own mind, but she had no idea how that worked or how that would affect his interactions with her.

"Hi." He responded just as softly.

 _That's good!_ She thought and gave him a relieved smile, he immediately looked away from her with a sharp intake of breath. She thought about what Quil had said yesterday when she had asked him what he had seen about her in Bennett's mind, _your smile._

She coughed uncomfortably and asked in a soft voice,

"How are you?" she had tried unsuccessfully to keep her concern out of her voice, but she could obviously hear it.

He just shrugged still not looking at her.

"Quil said that you weren't in any pain." She told him speaking just as softly.

As soon as she said Quil's name he turned sharply and stared at her, evaluating her.

"How could you not tell me, Claire!?" he said sharply as his brows pulled together in frustration with a look that she had only seen from him a handful of times and never directed toward her.

She was stunned by his obvious anger.

"I…. I'm sorry…. Maybe I should have…." She flustered. She wasn't sure if he meant that she should have told him about the wolves or about Quil specifically. Either way she felt that she was responsible.

"Damn right you should have! You didn't think I'd want to know that we had no future toget-" he suddenly got cut off as if all the air was sucked out of him.

He immediately turned to the side looking away from her again as if it hurt to look at her. It cut straight to her heart to see him like this and worse to know that he was exactly right. This was all her fault. She should have told him from the beginning how complicated her life was.

"Bennett," she said, her voice breaking a little as tears filled her eyes. She coughed a little to clear her throat before she continued. "You're right. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Quil. You had every right to know even if I thought that we could still be together…." She had more to say but she faded off when it suddenly seemed like he was choking on her words.

He kept trying to say something but not getting anything out. He still wasn't looking at her, but he kept sputtering and almost gaging while struggling for breath. It was horrible to watch. Claire's tears spilled over as she reached her hand out to grab his arm and comfort him. For a second her touch seemed to calm him. He immediately reached over and put his hands on hers even while he was still looking away to the side. And then,

"AHH!" he gasped quietly, clearly in pain as he dropped to his knees and grabbed his head at his temples with both of his hands.

"Bennett!?" she asked shocked and scared, she bent in closer to him and he instantly doubled over in more pain.

It was her. She was causing his pain. She just stopped and start backing quickly away from him as soon as she realized it. When she was about ten feet away she saw his discomfort start to recede. And then he turned to look at her. And she saw it. Saw all of his love for her. That was what was breaking his heart. His love for her was breaking him from the inside out. She gasped as she saw it all for just a moment and then turned around and escaped through the first door she saw.

The door had been to an extra classroom. It was almost only used for P.E. classes when they were testing. Thankfully it was completely empty and would most likely stay that way until the next day if not longer. As soon as Claire closed the door she leaned her back against it and slid all the way down to the floor. She could feel the cold from the linoleum flooring seeping through the thin cotton material of her underwear as her blue sundress poofed out around her instead of under her.

She just wrapped her left arm around herself and sat there shocked and horrified. There was a big part of her that just wanted to break down all over again and sob here on the floor. But she was tired of being the victim. Of being the girl crying on the floor, broken. No. She refused to fall apart again, she just needed to not think. To not think about that boy she loved that was in pain because of her. To not sit here listening in the silence for the old, slightly smaller Bennett, that would come to her and make everything alright.

She immediately grabbed at her backpack on the floor next to her and still wrapped around her left arm. She pulled out her phone and the headphones she was suddenly grateful she had thought to shove in her backpack that morning. They were still in the packaging they had come in with the phone. She immediately started frantically pulling at the plastic and unwinding them. As soon as they were free she shoved them in her ears and then into the phone.

She quickly scrolled though the online music app. She found what she wanted and then hit shuffle and turned the volume up to what her phone warned her was an unhealthy volume for her ears.

She just sat there blasting her music and listening to a shuffle of Ed Sheeran. She was suddenly more appreciative of his music than ever before. In fact, his gift for being able to convey every single emotion she had felt over the last week and a half was the reason she had picked him. His ballads made her want to break down and cry again but they were also relieving as if they were helping her leak those feelings out instead of burying them down deep or balling them all out at once.

It helped. A lot. And she didn't start crying again so she considered that a win.

After about an hour her phone pinged through the headphones in her ears. She hadn't moved in that entire time but took a breath and looked down to see a text from Quil.

 **Hey! I forgot you don't have practice after school anymore. Wasn't I supposed to pick you up? Why didn't you call me?**

She just blew out a deep breath. She needed to get on with her life. In multiple ways. But it was so much easier said than done. _Just start small._ She told herself calmly. She paused her phone in the middle of _DON'T_ and took the headphones out of her ears. Her ears rang with the sudden silence. She blew out a breath. _There, that was a start._ She told herself as she took a deep breath in and looked back down at her phone to type out a response to Quil,

 **Yeah, I decided to stay after and talk to my coach. I'm done now, would you mind coming to get me please?**

She blew her breath back out. She wondered how long Bennett would continue to have this effect on her where she couldn't seem to breathe without concerted effort. Her phone pinged again,

 **I'm already here. I got nervous and missed seeing you. I'm out front when you're ready.**

She breathed in again as a single tear found it's way out of her eye. _Crap! I said I wasn't going to cry today!_ She thought to herself as she quickly wiped it away. _It was just one tear, that doesn't count!_ She told herself as she took one last breath and prepared herself to go meet Quil out front.

She shoved her phone and headphones all together in her bag. And then stood up and walked out the door back to the empty hallway. She was relieved to not find anyone else in sight. A door that led out to the front of the school was only about twenty feet away. As soon as she walked through it, she could see Quil's car in the parking lot about fifty feet from her. She froze when she saw it, it was parked in the same spot Bennett's car had been in the last time they drove home from school together before the accident.

 _Shake it off, Claire! That is a ridiculous coincidence. Let it go._ She told herself with another deep breath before she started to walk as normally as she could to the Camaro. She wanted to drag her feet. She was worried that as soon as she got to the car Quil would take one look at her and somehow know exactly what had happened.

She made it to the car a few seconds later. The windows were rolled down and Quil was (ironically enough) playing an Ed Sheeran song from his phone over the surround sound with the car off. As she stood next to the door she took one last breath to help her put on her game face and then opened the door and slid in.

"Here." Quil said as he reached out and grabbed her backpack off her left arm and tossed it in the back seat.

"Thanks." She said in as light a voice as she could manage.

"Hi!" He said with a big smile on his face, he was clearly excited to see her.

She smiled at his enthusiasm and said, "Well hi there, Sunshine."

He laughed and said, "I haven't gotten to pick you up from school in a long time, I missed it."

She tried to laugh normally and said, "Well get used to it. I have like three-hundred and something more days left before graduation."

He chuckled but then looked at her and grew silent,

"Hey, you okay?" he asked as he put his hand behind her head on top of her hair.

She blew a breath of air out, "Yeah…. just school sucked is all."

She closed her eyes and leaned back against his hand so that it was pinned between her and the headrest.

"You wanna talk about it?" he asked kindly while rubbing his thumb through her hair.

She had a feeling that his thoughts were taking him to Bennett and that he was evaluating her while she had her eyes closed.

"Not really. Thanks though. Can we just get out of here? I pretty much want to be as far from this place as I can until I have to be back here in like fifteen hours."

"Sure, where do you want to go? Back to your house?" he asked her immediately.

"No." she said while shaking her head. "Jamie and my dad should be home any minute now and I just don't really have enough energy to pay attention to Jamie right now."

"So, my place?" he asked her.

She just bit her lip and looked at him for a moment. He seemed slightly hopeful.

"Alright..." she said hesitantly.

"Gee, don't jump out of your seat." He laughed as he pulled his hand back and restarted the car.

"No, it's just… I haven't been there since… Friday night…. Well, Saturday morning I guess…" she tried to explain.

"Yeah, I guess your most recent memories there haven't been great, huh?" he said reasonably.

"Not my favorite memories there, that's for sure." She answered thinking that she would probably never be able to rid herself of the image of he and Leah together in his apartment.

"Well, what _are_ your favorite memories there?" he asked her sincerely.

"Um…" she had to think for a moment. "Last summer when you got sick, and we just stayed in bed and watched _Big Bang Theory_ for like three days straight." She said with a smile.

He grinned hugely, "Yeah, you were a great little nurse." He told her as they pulled up in front of the garage.

She smiled again, "That and my last official sleep over. I was about eleven or twelve, do you remember?"

He had to think for a second, "The one where we watched _The One Direction Documentary_?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah!" she laughed at the memory and at his face, "That was awesome!"

She smiled at him as he rolled his eyes at her.

"Well I don't care how much you batte those doe eyes at me, I am _not_ watching that again!" he told her.

She laughed at his reaction to the memory but stopped suddenly when he got out of the car and she realized that she had to follow him and go back into his apartment. He must have heard her with his enhanced hearing because he walked around to her door and opened it.

"Come on, Claire." He said sternly, "Just focus on the good memories. We have a lot more of those than of the bad."

She nodded her head and took a breath as she started to slide out of the car.

"Don't forget your backpack." He reminded her.

Her legs were already out of the car and she had to contort herself around to reach back and grab it with her left arm. She grabbed it quickly but then had trouble getting back out.

"Um, Quil?"

"What?" he asked laughing.

"Help?" she asked with a small laugh. Her back was starting to hurt, and she couldn't seem to find any traction to force herself back up to a sitting position.

He laughed as he reached into the car and grabbed her waist in one hand and her left upper arm in the other and pulled her out.

"Ufh!" she huff as she landed on her feet with her backpack in hand.

He had pulled her out, but she had landed so close to him she was almost touching him and was looking right into his collarbone. She really _had_ grown. Her head came almost to his chin now. That explained why all her dresses suddenly looked like mini-skirts.

"Thanks." She said as he put his hands on the sides of her arms and took a step back from her.

He just rolled his eyes as he pulled his hand down her left arm grabbing her hand.

"Come on, Nino." He said starting to drag her inside.

"Great... That's back now." She muttered to herself as he, of course, heard and started laughing.

"I'm sorry," he said as he led her into the garage. "You're definitely not a nino anymore."

She wasn't listening anymore, she was suddenly resisting against his hand and dragging her feet as they were moving towards the stairs. All the memories from Friday were still so fresh to her and they were coming back to bite.

"Quil…. I'm just really not sure if…" she wasn't sure how to finish the sentence, but she knew she wasn't ready to be here yet standing in the same spot she had been in as Leah tried to tell her it wasn't what she thought.

He just looked at her a little exasperated before he dropped her hand, bent down and scooped her up over his shoulder.

"Quil! My arm!" She gasped surprised, but suddenly she was laughing. This was just her and Quil messing around at his place like always. That was all it was.

He carried her like that up the stairs and into his apartment without giving her any chances to hesitate about being there. He dropped her (gently) onto the left side of his bed.

"Eww! Not the scene of the crime!" she cried only half kidding as she landed on the same spot she had found him and Leah together and tried to squirm away, but he had jumped on top of her and pinned her down before he started to tickle her waist.

She was laughing and trying to squirm a way when he said, "I changed the sheets!" like that excused everything.

She was laughing harder than ever at his ridiculous rational. He seemed to think she wasn't going to try to make an escape because he had stopped pinning her down and moved until he was in a sitting position as opposed to straddling her before he laid down next to her on her right side.

She kept laughing for a few seconds before she sighed. She hadn't realized how tired she was until she was lying there next to Quil calmly staring at the ceiling. She yawned hugely and put her left arm under her head. It was quiet. They just stayed there for a few minutes until Quil turned on his side and propped himself up on his elbow to look at her. She had just closed her eyes and was almost asleep when he spoke,

"Better?"

"Hmm? Is what better?" she asked with her eyes closed.

"Not weird here anymore, huh?" he said confidently.

"Well it wasn't until you just pointed it out!" she chuckled at him.

He started to laugh and reached his right arm around her to tickle her left side where she didn't have a cast blocking access. She just laughed and squirmed into him trying to avoid his tickles as she grabbed his arm with her hand. He stopped after a second of her squeezing his arm with a vice grip.

They stayed lying there together for a second with Claire on her back and Quil next to her on his side with his arm around her and his hand still pressed gently to the side of her waist where he had been tickling her. Claire's hand was still on his arm and she noticed his tattoo a few inches above her fingers hanging out of the sleeve of his t-shirt. She stared at it, remembering Bennett's tattoo she had noticed earlier. She suddenly wanted to take a closer look at it for the first time in years.

She started tracing the lines of the dark ink with her finger, focused on the design beneath her touch. She looked up at Quil when he shivered after she had reached up under his sleeve to follow the lines of tribal meaning. He was looking at her face, watching her.

"Can I see it?" She whispered.

She wasn't sure why she felt like she needed to whisper it, perhaps because he was so close to her, or maybe because it seemed like such a personal request. She had meant to ask him why his was bigger than everyone else's but instead had gotten swept up in getting a better look at it.

He just nodded wordlessly before he sat up and shrugged his shirt off over his head. He was sitting next to her so closely that his legs were touching her waist and hip. He was sitting above her, and she couldn't see his tattoo from where she was lying on her back. She held her hand out to him and he grabbed it and pulled her up into a sitting position. She folded her legs underneath her skirt and out to the side so that her thigh was touching his under the skirt of her dress. She could feel the fabric of his pants chaff against her bare leg every time she moved but didn't register it as she focused on his tattoo again.

She picked up where she had left off, crawling her fingers over the lines. She slowly traveled up his arm and then up around his chest onto his shoulder then slowly down his back and over his shoulder blade.

After a few moments she noticed that he was being unusually quiet while she inspected his giant markings with her fingers. She looked up to find his eyes closed and his breathing controlled while she touched him. He turned to look over his shoulder at her when her fingers pause. She hadn't realized how close they were sitting to each other until he looked at her. Their legs were touching at their thighs, but his right arm was spread out brushing against her waist on her right side under her cast while pushing against the mattress to help support his weight. Claire's right arm and shoulder had been leaning into his as she leaned over his shoulder to trace the design over his back with her hand which was still touching the inked skin of his shoulder blade. She could feel the heat from his body warming her entire right side and her chest where it was leaning into him.

When he looked at her only inches away, she suddenly felt nervous. Her heartbeat kicked up in response. They way he was looking at her… he had never looked at her that way before. There was something in his eyes she hadn't seen there until now. Something about the way his eyes burned into hers made her feel like he was claiming her. The same way Bennett had flinched when she had touched him simply because she wasn't his to claim, it seemed that Quil's eyes _WERE_ claiming her while she touched him. She couldn't put her finger on what it was she was seeing in him exactly, but whatever it was made her nervous to her very core.

His eyes just held her to him, making her unable to move or look away. It was an intensity she had never seen from him before.

Finally, after possibly the longest thirty seconds of her life, she located her voice and whispered, "What do they mean?" while moving her fingers over the lines of his shoulder to indicate his tattoo. He still hadn't released her eyes from his.

He looked down at her hand touching his skin, breaking the intense eye contact. But somehow it didn't make the moment feel any less charged between them. He grabbed her fingers still touching his skin, in his own.

"These…" He said softly while reaching over his chest and using her fingers to brush some of the lines on his shoulder, "represent two wolves working in unison." His voice sounded rough in her ear right next to him. "The circle," he said in the same voice while using her fingers to slowly follow the large circle that encased the entire design from half way down his bicep to his inner arm and then to the top of his chest up over his peck and then to his collarbone past his neck and down his shoulder blade and over his back, "represents the strength of the pack through our ancestors and down through our posterity, a continual circle of brotherhood devoted to protecting their tribe." He moved her fingers to the middle of his shoulder and touched a line that went all the way down to his mid-bicep and ended in a point, following it he said, "This represents the knife of the Third Wife. It stands for selfless sacrifice in the pursuit of protecting others." He pulled her hand to a spot with a crescent shape on his chest under his collarbone, "The fang represents our bite. The only thing to destroy a vampire." She shivered next to him when he said it causing him to automatically scoot into her even closer. He continued as he moved her hand to the back of his arm where the design met his shoulder blade, "…and this symbol, represents our gifts; our speed and our enhanced senses." He finished with a shrug while releasing her hand and placing his back by his side. She was still touching his shoulder where he had placed it.

She could feel a pull towards him and knew that he was looking at her, but she couldn't bring herself to look up and meet his eye. She just kept staring at the lines on his back and chest, knowing that he was waiting for her to respond, to do something. Her breathing felt ragged and shallow. Her heart was beating over fast in response to his presence so close to her. She closed her eyes and leaned forward into him until she pressed her lips to the design on his shoulder just under his collarbone right at the top of his chest.

She wasn't sure what made her do it, she seemed to be acting on instinct alone. She felt his breathing accelerate slightly in response as she pulled back slightly and then felt his hand on the side of her face. She couldn't seem to make herself open her eyes to meet his intense gaze. She wanted to, but she couldn't seem to find the strength since she knew when she did he'd be so close, staring into her. She just sat there quaking beside him with his hand cradling her face.

"What is it?" He whispered to her as his thumb stroked her cheek just under the line of her stitches.

His face was just inches from her, close enough that he could take her kiss from her if he wanted to. The sound of his rough voice gave her the courage to finally open her eyes and found his gaze even stronger and more intense than she had expected, bearing down into her.

"I think I'm scared." she whispered honestly the second she was caught in his eyes.

"Of me?" His rough voice whispered while his eyes never released hers.

"Of being with you." She answered trying as best as she could to describe the sensation she was feeling.

He sighed out a big breath and his eyes finally seemed to lose that characteristic she couldn't identify that was holding her hostage as he dropped the hand cradling her face. She instantly resented its absence, wanting it back touching the now cold side of her face.

"Fifteen solid years of fighting vampires and _you're_ most definitely going to be what kills me." He told her and his normal volume voice suddenly sound loud after their hushed tones.

"What do you mean?" She asked confused.

"Claire, I have no plans for being with you for another five years give or take…" He told her, "But you can't just sneak attack me like that and expect me not to respond to it."

Suddenly she identified the look that had been in his eyes. _Wanting._ And not just wanting but _longing_ for _her_. She gasped with the realization,

"You felt it too!" She said suddenly understanding the intense attraction that had occurred between them.

"Oh, I definitely felt it! In fact, I think I better take you home now." He told her, his voice still rough.

"Why?" She asked confused, it was barely six and she hadn't even started her homework yet.

"Because I don't trust myself to be alone with you right now." He said while nodding down at her.

She looked away from his face for the first time to look down where he had gestured and realized that her body was basically plastered to the side of his. She laughed and bent in quickly to give him a kiss on his scruffy cheek before she pulled away from him to stand up.

He took a couple of deep steadying breathes and then got up off the bed while shrugging back into his shirt. He stood and gave her a small smile before he grabbed her hand and led her out the door to take her home where he wouldn't be alone with her.

 ***Author's note***

 **I just wanted to take a second and apologize that it took a little longer to get this chapter out. Some days I just have more going on than others, but I really appreciate every single one of you for reading this and going on this journey with Quil and Claire! I hope you're enjoying it because I know that I sure am! With any luck I'll have chapter 13 up by tomorrow! xoxo**


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

 **Quil:**

Quil's heart was still pounding as he led Claire down the stairs and out the shop to his car. _This girl is killing me._ He thought to himself for about the millionth time that day. She didn't even seem to be aware of the intense affect she was having on him. She was just business as usual while he was basically panting (like the wolf he was) at just the thought of her.

He was actively trying not to think about her lying on his bed while he had his arm around her tickling her, or about her asking to see his tattoo and her soft fingers tracing his shirtless skin while she pushed her body up against the side of his. _Quil!_ He chastised himself. He had to get a hold of himself, no matter how good she smelled with her long hair just inches from him. He couldn't seem to shake the chills that had spread through his body from the spot where she had kissed his chest or from where her soft fingers had trailed under the sleeve of his shirt.

She had been affecting him more and more every day since she had shown up at the garage on Friday night but today was just ridiculous. From the second she had gotten in his car just over two hours ago, it had felt like she was waging an all-out assault on his senses. Her smell, which had somehow intensified over the last few months, hit him right of the bat and then every little thing she did seemed to drive him even more crazy. The casual way she had left her hand on his arm when she was lying next to him. The way her skirt came up just a little every time she walked so that he got an extra 3 inch shot of her long legs. Even the way she seemed to breath when she was near him.

She seemed to be responding to him and all over him without even realizing she was doing it. She didn't even understand it. He figured she had just never felt this level of attraction before and didn't recognize it for what it was. Neither had he if he was being honest with himself. Sure, he had MUCH more experience when it came to these types of physical responses, but he had _NEVER_ felt an attraction this strongly before. Ever.

She was in his head and under his skin and he felt like he was losing a battle with his self-control, every minute he spent around her he seemed to lose another inch of ground. He kept reminding himself of all the reasons it wasn't a good idea to give in to these sudden all-consuming desires, namely her age, the fact that she wasn't even close to ready for something like that, and that she still seemed to be in love with another guy.

But none of that seemed to matter the second she had put her lips to his chest and kissed his tattoo. In fact, he couldn't even remember any of it in that moment. If she hadn't been shaking, he couldn't imagine that there would have been _anything_ that would have stopped him from kissing her. Not just kissing either, her but kissing her the way he had wanted to since that moment months ago when she had pressed her soft, sweet lips to his. No restraint. No holding back. Just claiming what had always been meant to be his.

But she had been shivering. No, not just shivering. Shaking like a leaf. She wouldn't even look at him. And then she had said it. She was afraid. She was afraid of being with him. And like a dose of ice water thrown over his head he was brought back to reality. She was _so_ _YOUNG,_ she had just had her heart broken, _and she wasn't ready_. There was _no_ _way_ it was okay for Quil to touch her at that point. So, he just shook his head and tried to shake her off.

He was still trying to shake off her impact as he held open the passenger door of his car and she slid in gracefully while unintentionally showing about six more inches of leg as her skirt hiked up. He blew out a giant breath and put a hand behind his neck. _This girl is killing me_. He thought _again_. He started walking around the car before she could notice that something was up with him. He had no idea how to explain this to her. There was no comprehensible way for her to understand.

He got in the car at that point and decided to just focus on her. Claire herself might be the best distraction from the assault _she_ was inflicting upon him. She provided the perfect opportunity for distraction when he was pulling out and she said hesitantly,

"So…. I have something to tell you."

"What?" he asked a bit dubiously. He didn't like the way she had said that.

"Well it's just I have to go back to the hospital in Treeport tomorrow, the one they took me to after the accident."

He was immediately concerned,

"Why? Is something wrong? Is it your arm?" he badgered her calmly but swiftly.

"No, nothing like that. I just have to get my stitches out finally."

"Oh, Okay." He said while digesting the news. That wasn't a bad thing.

"Yeah, I didn't want to make a big deal about it or anything, but I just thought that you'd want to know…" she trailed off while looking out the window instead of at him.

"Of course, I want to know. Can I come with you?" he asked unsure why she was reacting the way she was.

She turned and looked at him as she said,

"Do you want to?"

"Of course, I do. I couldn't be there the first time, but I'm definitely going to be there to hold your hand this time around."

He looked over at her as he pulled in front of her house, she was biting her bottom lip. It was something she did every time she felt nervous or unsure, but he had to look away. Why did she have to suddenly look so sexy when she did it? He took a deep breath to get himself under control, so he could come back to the conversation before he looked back at her and asked a little warily,

"What is it?"

"It's just….. I came into the hospital after I was in an accident…."

"Yeah …?" he prodded

"… With my boyfriend, who made a memorable exit from said hospital when security escorted him out after they refused to let him see me." She explained.

"Okay..." He said looking forward and away from her again.

That was a lot more details he hadn't received about the accident. He wasn't surprised that Bennett would have security called on him to get to her. He would do almost anything to get back to Claire, including break himself apart from the inside out in a vain attempt to.

"… And it's just if I show up with a different guy to hold my hand, it might seem more than a little questionable." She continued.

"Claire," he said finally looking at her. "Do _you_ want me there?"

She was frozen for a moment as she seemed to process what he was asking and evaluating herself before she gave an honest answer. It was the way she had always answered a difficult question.

"Yeah, I do." She said finally, "I don't want to have to be there by myself again and you are the person I would want to be with me."

He smiled at her sweet rational.

"Okay. So, I'm coming, end of story. People don't even assume we're together, so we just act normal and don't worry about it." He told her thinking of the waitress from the day before.

"What if someone asks?" she asked him nervously.

"Well…. Just tell them I'm your uncle again." He said with a wink. "You're still a minor anyways so you would need a family member to take you to the hospital, right?"

She nodded as she processed that.

"That makes sense."

He chuckled, "I usually do."

She scoffed at him and stuck her left arm right into his side and started tickling him unexpectedly. He laughed as he squirmed out of her way and put his hand on top of hers. She stopped but still had her hand resting on his ribcage with his hand encasing hers.

And there it was again. It was like a heated charge between them that seemed to pull them to each other and get stronger the closer they got. She had been laughing but now she was just looking up at him with her huge doe eyes that always melted his heart. He had to look away before he did something stupid. He looked out the windshield and noticed the small car that they were parked behind.

He blew out a huge breath. He was still holding her hand against his side, but he couldn't seem to make himself let go of her. She laughed as though she could read his mind and twisted her hand around in his until she was holding it and then pulled it down until it was resting on his leg in his lap.

He felt the way he did when he was about to phase, like he was shaking and losing control. Probably because he was. He had been losing this battle all along. He hadn't even looked back at her yet. He needed to distract himself again. He thought back to the conversation they had been having and then asked,

"Why do you have to go back to the hospital? Why can't your mom just take them out?"

She didn't say anything for a second and he turned to look back at her. He was surprised to see that she looked a little embarrassed.

"What?" he asked intrigued by her reaction.

Her face got a little red and she said,

"Well they actually had a plastic surgeon do my stitches."

"What?!" he asked laughing.

"He said that my face was too pretty to take the chance of scarring, so he wouldn't trust anyone else to stitch me up." She explained looking down like she was embarrassed, "He was actually really smooth and fast, but he insisted that he be the one to remove them…."

Quil thought this little detail was hilarious and it was just like Claire to be embarrassed to share it. He tried to stop laughing so that she wouldn't need to keep feeling insecure about it. He reached over to her with his left hand that wasn't holding hers in his lap and grabbed the right side of her face carefully so that his fingers were brushing the sterri-strips covering her stitches. As soon as he touched her face she looked up at him again and he said calmly,

"Well, I can't argue with that logic. I don't want anyone but the best touching this beautiful face."

The smile she gave him did more for him than all of her other assaults combined. Fortunately, she had been attacking him all night, so he was at least prepared to fight it off.

"Are you okay?" she asked him suddenly.

She could see right through him and into his eternal struggle waging just with in him.

"I wish I knew." he told her as he blew out an exasperated breath.

She seemed confused and about to respond but he pulled his hand off her face and said,

"Come on, let's go see who's here." As he gestured to the white VW parked right in front of the house in Quil's usual spot that they were parked behind.

"Okay." She said in a small voice following him out of the car.

Quil took some deep breathes of cold air trying to help clear his head as he walked around the car to meet Claire. As soon as he got around to her, she leaned into him grabbing his right arm and wrapping her left arm around it and squeezing herself tightly to him for a moment before she slowly pulled it down to put her hand in his.

What was with her tonight? She wasn't usually very physically affectionate, in fact most of the physical contact she gave him was for his benefit. And now when it was taking all his control to stay off of her she was suddenly as snuggly as possible?

He couldn't decide if he wanted to shake her or pull her tight and hold her for as long as she was willing to let him.

He was blowing out a breath trying to decide when they walked in the door and right into the middle of something. The first thing they noticed was Jamie crying silently in the corner watching as Robert and Susan stood on opposite sides of the kitchen table all but screaming at each other.

" _-and you think that gives you the right to make decisions for this family!?"_ Susan was yelling when they walked through the door.

Claire immediately dropped Quil's hand and ran to Jamie wrapping her good arm around his body and putting her hand in his hair as she pulled him into the left side of her body that was away from her cast as she spoke quietly to him,

"Shhh. It's okay, I'm here now. It's okay."

He just started to sob into Claire's shoulder as he said,

"Where w-were y-you Cl-Claire?"

She immediately looked distraught.

"What's going on here?" Quil asked to Susan and Robert.

He suddenly realized that he was using his 'alpha tone'. It was his authoritative tone of voice he spoke in whenever he had to command the pack. He had used it plenty of times to reconcile disputes between wolves, they usually always involved Leah and another member of the pack.

Susan gestured toward Quil with her hand and said angrily,

"Go ahead Robert, tell 'em."

Robert seemed more frustrated than ever as he blew out a breath and turned to face them.

"Well Claire, this wasn't the _way_ (he turned back around to give Susan a scathing look) I wanted to tell you but there's a surprise out front for you!" he finished with a marginal amount of enthusiasm.

"What are you talking about, Dad?" she asked in a frustrated voice as she seemed to be trying to lift Jamie up in her left arm to carry him like a much smaller child.

Quil immediately came over to them and pulled Jamie out of her arm and into his own before she could hurt herself trying to lift him with just one arm. She shot him a grateful look and passed him over.

"But I wa-want to stay wi-with Cl-Claire!" he cried into Quil's shoulder.

"It's okay buddy, I never go anywhere without Claire. So as long as you're with me, you know Claire will be close by." Quil told him as he rubbed his back in the same soothing way he had always rubbed Claire's whenever she was in pain or upset.

That logic seemed to satisfy Jamie because he nodded stoically against Quil's shoulder and quieted down a little as Robert said sincerely to Claire,

"Go look outside."

"What!?" She asked confused, "No, I'm not going anywhere. What's going on here?"

"Claire, just go outside!" Susan snapped erratically.

"Whoa!" Quil said calmly but ready to intervene. It wasn't okay for anyone to snap at Claire that way as far as he was concerned, even her mother.

"It's alright, Quil." Claire said reaching up to touch his arm stilling holding Jamie. "Let's go look outside!" She said a little sarcastically.

He followed her back out the door they had just come through with Robert right behind him.

"Um what am I looking at?" Claire asked confused. Everything looked exactly the same as it had twenty seconds before.

"You're new car!" Robert said managing some enthusiasm even as he said it tightly. He was gesturing to the little white car parked in front of the Camaro.

"What?" Asked Claire completely confused, "I can't even drive with my cast on, Dad."

"Oh, you'll be in your partial cast in two and a half weeks and then you can drive again, besides you'll have to share it with Rachel anyways until she goes off to U-Dub after she graduates so she'll just drive it until you can too." Robert explained.

"Wow." Claire said completely stunned.

"Well what do you think, Claire!? Isn't it great!?" Susan said completely sarcastically.

"Mom!" Claire chastised quietly.

Robert completely ignored Susan and said. "It's a great little car, Claire, you'll love it! Huh, Quil, I'm sure you'll agree with me that it's a great car!"

Quil immediately said, "Yeah, I'm not getting in the middle of whatever this is. In fact, this seems like a private _ADULT_ issue no one else here needs to be in the middle of." Not so subtly reminded them of their children witnessing their destructive behavior.

"Just take it back, Robert!" Susan said loudly, completely ignoring Quil's advice.

"Alright!" Quil said quickly, "Whatever we do doesn't need to be a scene for the entire neighborhood. Back inside everyone, come one!" He started steering Robert inside with his right arm. He was still carrying Jamie in his left arm who was still crying.

Robert obediently walked in the door while Claire followed behind him, eager to get out of the public eye. Susan seemed like she wasn't going to be told what to do but since everyone else was already moving inside she would have to as well if she wanted to continue her verbal assault.

Quil closed the door quickly behind Susan as soon as they got back in the house. Claire immediately looked up at Quil looking a little distraught before she turned to her father and said,

"Dad, I really don't need a car, maybe you should just take it back if-"

"Oh no, Claire!" He interrupted, "That car is for you and it's not going anywhere, so enjoy it! It even has seat warmers!"

Claire seemed more upset than ever and Susan seemed like she was about to go for blood when Quil quickly intervened again,

"Alright! Time for all of the minors in this house to go upstairs!"

Robert shot him a grateful look, but Claire started,

"No, Quil, I should stay and…"

"Go with Quil, Claire." Her father cut across her.

She seemed deflated as she let Quil steer her up the stairs. He followed Claire all the way up to her room with Jamie still in his arms and immediately shut the door before pulling his phone out and turning the volume as loud as it would go as he hit play on the song he had been listening to in his car when he was waiting to pick Claire up from school.

Quil could still hear Susan railing into Robert downstairs but he was hoping that Jamie and Claire's mediocre hearing wouldn't pick it up, one look at Claire's face told him they still could.

Claire ran her hand through her hair pulling it back and out of her face as she blew a breath out. Quil could see the tears pooling in her eyes as his heart gave an instant pang responding to her pain. She kicked off her shoes and climbed up on her bed before she settled back on her pillows in a sitting position. She motioned with her left arm for Quil to bring Jamie over to her.

He walked over and set Jamie on the bed.

"Come here, James!" She said softly as she grabbed him in her left arm and pulled him to her. He immediately snuggled into her left side, squeezing his arms around her waist under her cast and sobbing onto her chest.

"Shh! It's okay. I'm sorry I wasn't here for you, but I'm here now, okay? Shhh. Calm down, it's okay." She tried to soothe him as he cried harder than ever.

The plus side was that he couldn't hear his parents railing into each other over the sound of his sobs, Quil secretly thought to himself.

"Hey! What if I sing to you?" Claire asked brightly, "Will you stop crying if I sing to you?"

Jamie just nodded his head into her chest as he sniffed to himself. Claire took a deep breath in and then started singing along to the Ed Sheehan song that was playing on Quil's phone as she rubbed Jamie's back and he cried quietly into her dress.

Quil just stood at the side of the bed completely lost in the sight of them together. He shocked himself when as he watched Claire singing to Jamie he found himself thinking, _Wow, she'll be such a great mom!_

He had never really thought about having children before, he had actually always been too busy with Claire as a child to think of ever having his own children, and he hadn't lied to Claire when he had told her a few months back that he didn't need 'giant wolf babies'. But in that moment as he looked at her he suddenly realized that if he ever was to have any he wanted _her_ to be the mother of his children.

She was always maternal with Jamie but the way that she selflessly shoved her own pain aside to comfort him while he was upset truly amazed Quil as he climbed on the bed with them.

Claire's eyes were filled with unshed tears as Quil sat next to her and wrapped his arms around both of them. She immediately leaned her head into his chest where her hair snagged onto his short beard as he tucked his chin down onto her head.

They just sat like that with Quil's arms around Claire as she leaned into him and held onto Jamie who was wedge in between them clinging to her as she sang to him. She sang for about an hour. After the first song Jamie stopped crying and just held her as he listened to her soothing voice. After about the twentieth song she sang, Jamie fell asleep where he was lying against her with his hold on her waist.

Her voice was getting dry and raspy as she faded off quietly in the middle of the song. Quil quickly reached his right arm back and over while still holding her in his left to grab the glass of water off her night stand. As he pulled away from her about half of her hair came away with his face, stuck to it like Velcro.

"Huh. I see why you never liked the beard now." He said quietly trying not to bother Jamie, "I'll shave it." He promised. But then she smiled and winked up at him and suddenly the thought of having something that deterred her from getting physically closer to him didn't seem like such a bad idea.

"Thanks." She rasped in a whisper as she carefully reached up with her left hand to grab the water he handed her while trying not to jostle Jamie. She drained the whole thing quickly and handed it back to him. He quickly put it back on the nightstand and wrapped his arm back around her as she snuggled deeper into his chest.

"I don't even _want_ a car, Quil." She confessed softly.

"I'm sorry." He said as he rubbed his hand down her back trying to soothe her. "How long have they been fighting like this?"

She shrugged under him. "It got worse after you left last fall, but they haven't been great since….. gosh, I don't even remember the last time they were doing well together…." she sighed before she said, "This is the first time they had an all-out screaming match though. They spent all of Saturday at some couples retreat in Port Angeles…. I guess it didn't help…"

He just sat there rubbing her back as she held Jamie knowing that there was nothing he could really say to make her feel better.

"Well at least it's over now. I think I heard your mom's car pull out about twenty minutes ago." He told her.

Claire just nodded and then gave a small shudder. Quil immediately pulled her tighter into his chest.

"Stay with me tonight?" She asked him in a soft vulnerable whisper.

He was immediately torn, they hadn't intentionally spent the night together since she had started dating Bennett. Quil always wanted to be there to hold her when she needed him, but he was already losing his battle between his self-control and his need to be as close to her as he possibly could. Sleeping in her bed with her would not help him win that battle.

"Claire….." he said his voice portraying how torn he felt. "I don't know if that's such a good idea…."

He couldn't see her face while she was buried into his chest with Jamie on her lap. She seemed to shake a little before she nodded her head quietly. He was even more torn at that point.

"Ugh!" He literally growled in frustration. He could feel her shock in his arms at his wolf showing through. She tried to pull back to look at him, but he wouldn't let her, he just pulled her tight to his chest as he slid down the mattress taking her and Jamie with him until they were lying down on the bed with Jamie between them and Claire curled around him into Quil's chest.

"Quil," she started in her reasonable voice as he finally let her pull back enough to look at him. "We don't need to pretend-"

She was cut off as the sound of Leah's howl cut through the night, clearly calling for him.

"Dammit!"

He had completely forgotten that he was already due to meet her and Bennett to run patrol as they trained him. He wasn't used to having to go out every day anymore, but since Bennett was all of about three days old to the wolf life it would take training him every day for the next few weeks at the very least.

"Shh!" Claire reproached him.

"Sorry!" He whispered to her. He wasn't sure if the reproach was for his volume or for cursing in front of Jamie. Probably both.

He slapped his hand to his face.

"Crap! I forgot that I have to go out again tonight." He whispered as he ran his hand up her back and accidentally snagging the end of her skirt and pulling it all the way up with him.

"Oops! Sorry!" He whispered widening his eyes to convey that it was unintentional.

He couldn't see anything with her facing him on the bed, but he knew that if he lifted his head just a few inches he would see her entire panties exposed as her butt hung out of her dress. But she didn't look upset as she whispered,

"You'll have to fix it." Rolling her hand around indicating her left arm that she was lying on top of while her forearm and hand were holding Jamie. She couldn't do anything about it with her right arm in a cast.

Quil tried not to think about anything at all as he smoothly ran his hand back down her back and all the way over her butt as he pulled her dress back to where it was supposed to be and made sure it was covering her. She laughed quietly when he blew out a breath afterwards. He hadn't realized he had been holding it in before that moment. She quickly stretched her neck up and gave him a kiss under his chin where some of her long hair was still stuck in his beard.

"Thanks!" She whispered.

"No problem." He lied as he ran his hand down from her hairline to the back of her neck pulling it away from his chin.

She smiled up at him while looking up with his hand supporting her neck from behind.

He was _definitely_ losing the battle with his self-control. He couldn't even stop himself as he slowly pulled her forward to meet him and for the second time that night he started to lean in to kiss her. She seemed to stretch herself to reach to him as she smiled up at him as if she was expecting his kiss. He was just an inch from her when they heard Leah's howl whine at him again and instantly burst their small bubble.

"Ugh!" He groaned as he closed his eyes and placed his forehead against Claire's, "Go away!" He whispered quietly knowing that there was no way that Leah could hear him.

He could feel Claire shake with a small, quiet chuckle before she used her reasonable voice again to say, "Quil!"

"Yes, darling?" He teased brightly with his eyes still closed and his head to hers.

"You have responsibilities." She reminded him sternly.

He just shook his head against hers and said, "No, I don't."

She chuckled again. "Yes, you do, and you need to go meet those responsibilities."

He finally opened his eyes and pulled back just enough to look at her. His hand was still cup around her neck and his left arm was under and around her holding her and Jamie close to him.

"You're my number one responsibility, I'm not going anywhere." He said in his rough voice. His voice seemed to get rougher the more turned on he was by her.

She smiled but shook her head. He looked at her confused by her response until she said,

"I'm not your responsibility, I'm your _priority_ , Quil. I know that. But I'm okay, go meet your responsibilities."

He had never thought of the distinction. He thought about it for a moment before he laughed and said, "You're right, Makah Claire."

It was quiet, and he was still staring at her a moment later when she prompted him, "So go…."

"I don't want to." He explained while maintaining their eye contact and not moving away from her.

"I don't want you to." She admitted unashamed.

"So, I won't." He said simply. _Yup definitely losing this battle_. He felt oddly okay with losing though.

She smiled skeptically before Leah called to him for a third time and then she shrugged like she had been expecting it and had told him as much. Quil was about to suggest they let her go to hell when another wolf's howl cried to him. Claire immediately tensed next to him and looked down breaking his eye contact the second she heard Bennett's wolf call.

"You should go. They need you." She said quietly in a dead voice. She wouldn't look back up at him so that he could read her face.

 _Damn kid,_ he thought to himself as he gave what might have been the world's biggest sigh. He sat up letting her go before he climbed off the bed. He moved down to where Jamie was zonked with his arms around Claire still.

"What are you doing?" She asked as he scooped Jamie up in his arms.

"Taking him to bed, you can't move him." He explained.

"I was just going to let him sleep with me."

Quil was already walking out the door when he said, "Too late, besides I don't want him stealing my spot."

He couldn't see her reaction to that since he was still walking away from her. It was probably for the best since if she responded well to the idea of him having a spot in bed with her he would probably never leave.

He quickly put Jamie in his bed and came back out to find Claire waiting for him in the hall.

"You had better hurry before someone calls animal control." She told him as sure enough Leah howled for him yet again. "Impatient, isn't she?" Claire noted annoyed.

"You have no idea." He replied as he moved slightly closer to her standing in the middle of the hall starting to close the three-foot gap between them.

She smiled a little at his ribbing of Leah. He knew that she may have forgiven him for what had happened less than a week ago with Leah, but that didn't mean she was completely over it.

Claire smiled up at him and said, "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yes. Definitely." He assured her as he moved another step closer to her. He appeared to have completely surrendered his self-control in his battle against his attraction to her, she was less than a foot away from him now.

"My appointment at the hospital is at 3:15, so I need you to pick me up right after school." She warned him as he stepped as close as he could to her so that he was looking directly down at her now while she looked up at him and she placed her hand absentmindedly on his chest while she spoke.

"Okay," he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her back pulling her slightly closer to him. "I can do that."

"Okay, good." She said softly.

She gave him a coy smile before stepping up on her toes and quickly kissing his cheek and then turning around forcing him to drop his hold on her and going back into her room. At the last second she turned back around to smile at him as she slowly started to close her door.

"Goodnight, Quil Quileute." She said with a wink.

He was left standing speechless just as Bennett's howl ripped through the air again. _Killjoy._ He thought towards him. He started shaking his head as he walked down the stairs. He needed to find a way to get Claire out of his head before his mind was shared with the last person on earth who wanted to hear what he was currently thinking about his hand softly brushing over the perfect curve of Claire's ass... _Quil! Focus!_ He yelled in his head as he walked out the front door.

He started singing the national anthem in his head as he completely bypassed his car and started for the woods a few hundred yards away. It was his transition song. It always worked for him when he needed to let go of his personal crap and get into the pack mentality.

Tonight, he was so filled with his thoughts of Claire that he had to sing another round in his mind as he shrugged out of his shirt and stripped his pants and threw them on the ground by a tree where he could find them later. Bennett howled for him again just as he pulled the heat straight from his naval and the next second, he was running east to meet the two other wolves two miles off.

" _Finally!"_ thought Leah, _"Just take your time why don't you, Quil!"_

" _Yeah, yeah, yeah -quit crying I'm here aren't I!?"_ Quil thought back annoyed, hehad much better places he could be right now, not that he could think of them…

" _What took you so long!?"_ Bennett asked annoyed.

Great, now Leah had a sidekick.

" _I'm not a sidekick!"_ Bennett immediately responded.

Quil was just reaching them in the small clearing they had set as their meeting spot. He stopped to close his eyes and press his nose to the ground. He needed to clear his head. He hadn't meant for Bennett to hear him. His personal thoughts were leaking through and he needed to get to his pack mentality.

" _It's okay, Bennett, I don't mind having a sidekick. I'll teach you everything I know."_ Leah thought toward him.

" _That won't take long."_ Quil thought toward her.

" _Look who's talking 'default alpha'."_ She instantly griped back.

" _Hey, I don't see Jake asking you to run his pack."_ He wasn't in the mood for her constant bickering tonight.

Things had been slightly tense between them since Friday night. Neither of them ever thought about it, partly because they didn't want the rest of the pack to know about what had happened…or _almost_ happened. And partly because neither of them wanted to think about it.

Quil had pulled her aside on Saturday when he had gone to switch her for Bennett babysitting duty. He asked if she wanted to talk about it.

"It was a mistake. We both know it. Let's never talk about it again, okay!?" had been her reply. Quil was just fine with that. He already had to talk about it enough while making things right with Claire. At this point he didn't think he could talk too little about it.

But since that moment she seemed to have been avoiding him and was even snippier than usual when they had to be around each other.

" _Yeah, so much for rewarding loyalty."_ She thought back sarcastically.

" _You think you have been more loyal to Jacob than I have?"_ he asked her completely skeptical.

" _Who was the one to go with him when he left Sam?"_ she pointed out snottily.

" _Seth! And Jacob still didn't ask him to be in charge, did he?!"_ Quil thought with a huff out of his nose.

" _And me! And where were you!? Safe in La Push with your cushy pack!"_ she all but screamed in his mind.

" _Oh please, Leah. You way over value your worth. I have always been loyal to Jake. I couldn't leave Sam's pack when he did, I already had Claire. If I went with Jacob, Sam would have been able to cut off all my access points to her."_

He saw Leah react by pulling into a crouch and lifting her mussel to reveal her teeth as she growled threateningly at him. He was about to lay down the law and respond when suddenly Bennett jumped at him, grabbing Quil by the throat and pulling him down quickly. Both he and Leah had been so caught up in their argument that they hadn't been paying any attention to him, and Quil had let him get the drop on him. Quil instantly got traction by pulling his legs through and knocking Bennett's out from under him, the second he was down Quil rolled and was on top of him, his two front paws on his chest holding him down, mussel bared, growl ripping, demanding submission in one lethal move.

He and Leah were both a little shocked as they saw what had happened in Bennett's mind.

When Quil had mentioned Claire, he had had the smallest flash of a personal memory, he was holding her neck as they were lying with Jamie between them on her bed less than an hour ago, she had smiled at him right as he was about to kiss her. It had leaked through Quil's control without his realization and Bennett had seen it. Normally anytime Bennett thought of Claire he was instantly shut down by his own instincts, but when he saw the image in Quil's mind he didn't stop to think about it, he just reacted. He attacked Quil, completely blindsiding him.

" _Well at least his reflexes are getting better."_ Thought Leah.

" _Yeah that'll be really helpful when when he overhears a bloodsucking leech thinking about MY imprint."_ Quil thought back critically. He was having a much stronger reaction to Bennett's feelings towards Claire than he'd ever had before.

He was still on top of him, growling. Demanding submission from a wolf that had already surrendered. He couldn't seem to reign in his instincts, apparently when he had lost the battle with his self-control it had extended beyond his attraction to Claire.

As that thought ran through his head a small image leaked through his control again. Claire on his bed, leaning into him as her fingers traced his tattoo over his shirtless skin. Bennett instantly responded and snapped up at him, trying to bite at him again.

Quil shoved him down even harder as he ripped out a harsh warning growl from deep within his throat. His front paw was now on Bennett's jugular. Quil couldn't even think. He could only hear his pulse pounding in his own ears and feel his instinct to bite down and snap this wolf's neck.

" _Whoa boys! Easy now!"_ thought Leah.

Quil completely ignored her, he barely even registered her. It was taking all his strength to keep himself from pressing down on Bennett's jugular. It wasn't until a memory of Claire saying, 'Bennett!?" with concerned etched clearly in her tone as she reached out to him wearing that same blue dress she had worn today, ran through Bennett's mind, that the shock seemed to pull Quil out of his trance. He backed up letting Bennett get back to his feet as he thought,

" _What was that!?"_

" _What?"_ Bennett asked, shaking his head confused.

" _That memory of Claire! When was that!?"_ Quil yelled in his head.

Bennett flinched the way he always did when he thought of Claire.

" _Today. It was when I saw her today."_ He answered, trying to shake the confusion out of his head.

" _WHAT!?"_ Quil roared both as a growl and in his mind. He immediately turned on Leah with a growl.

" _I didn't know he saw Claire! I swear, Quil, I'd never let his newbie ass anywhere near her!"_ she told him honestly.

" _I saw her at the school, when I went to talk to my coach after school had let out. I didn't know she'd be there. She's not in cheer anymore so she doesn't have to stay after."_ Bennett explained while shaking his head furiously. He was starting to feel some real pain while thinking of Claire so much. Enough pain that Quil was satisfied to finally back off from him.

" _Stupid move, Leah."_ Quil thought to her critically. _"You let him go to the school?"_

" _He had to go talk to one person. Chill Quil, the kids got great control for the most part. His athletic ability is working in his favor to control his wolf power."_ She huffed back at him.

" _Enough!"_ he thought back in his alpha tone shutting both of them up. _"No more stupid mistakes, we're lucky nothing happened."_

" _Nothing happened!? Easy for you to say."_ Bennett scoffed thinking of his pain when Claire had touched him.

Quil saw an image of Claire's hand on Bennett's arm with his hand on top of hers as it ran through Bennett's mind before he was hit with another wall of denial. Quil started shaking his own head to shake the image out. He was immediately fighting the urge to bite down hard on Bennett's neck and not let go.

" _Let's get going, we've got a job to do. Tonight, we're just going to run our standard loop down around La Push, past Forks, and then up around the Makah rez. Bennett, you need to focus on what you smell. Memorize all of the normal scents so that you're familiar with them-"_

" _Why?"_ Bennett interrupted him.

" _So, when something not normal crosses your path you'll notice it."_ Leah explained kindly while Quil rolled his eyes at the total newb. Where was Jacob to run his stupid pack so that he could be comfortably in bed holding Claire right now?

Bennett was already shaking from the reaction he had had to that thought Quil had again unintentionally let slip through. Quil took a deep breath to regain control, he couldn't afford any more personal thoughts tonight. Regaining his focus, he thought.

" _Alright, Bennett, you're with me, we're going to take the north half. Leah, you take the south. We'll meet you at the west clearing around three. Tomorrow we'll switch and do the opposite. Everyone got it?"_

They both nodded their assent.

" _Good. Let's go!"_ he thought as he took off with Bennett hot on his tail.

Quil woke up the next morning feeling completely exhausted. Their run the night before had taken longer than usual even though they had only covered half as much ground. Bennett needed to become familiar with all the scents of the terrain and it involved a lot of stopping and a lot of talking him through it all. Quil had already decided that tonight Bennett would go with Leah. He didn't think he could take a fourth night in a row of hand holding. He had originally wanted Bennett to stick exclusively with him for the first week or two to avoid him picking up bad habits from the other wolves.. now it seemed more important for him to have a well-rounded education. He was already planning on having him go out with Brady the next night. He wouldn't get into too much trouble …. Brady only caused a commotion whenever he was left alone with Collin.

Quil rubbed his hand over his face still in bed. He checked the clock. 11:15. "Ugh" he groaned loudly. He really needed to get up and moving. He had to pick Claire up in three hours, but he really just wanted to go back to sleep. He was debating if he could just sleep until 2 pm when he needed to get Claire from school when his stupid phone pinged. "Uhn" he groaned again as he rolled onto his stomach and put his face in his pillow as he used his hand to feel around blindly on his nightstand looking for his phone. He almost sent the clock flying before he found it. The message was not from Claire like he was hoping, but from Bennett.

 **Dude, where are you? I can't spend all day waiting around for you.**

Quil slapped his face to try to wake up. He was on official babysitting duty so that Leah could go back to work in La Push today. He couldn't wait until he could stick this kid with Brady, but of course Brady would probably pawn him off on Collin who would definitely get him into trouble so…. Quil shook his head and typed out,

 **Alright, alright. I'm up. Just come over and you can come to the gym with me.**

Quil got up thinking about how weird it was that Bennett was even awake. There was no way he got any more sleep than Quil did. Maybe age factored in more than they thought because Quil definitely felt like his body was tired while Bennett seemed to have unending energy. He walked over to the kitchen and start pouring random amounts of coffee grounds into the top of the coffee maker. He grabbed a protein bar out of the cabinet and shoved the whole thing into his mouth hoping that it might give him some energy before he threw himself back first on his bed again.

He was just starting to feel really thirsty and was wondering what Claire was doing right then. He knew she was in school now but was debating texting her to see how her day was going. If class wasn't too busy or if her teacher wasn't paying attention then she usually texted him back. He heard the coffee maker beep that it was finished just as he heard light foot steps come through the side door downstairs in the garage.

"Uh, Quil?" he heard Bennett call from below.

He pulled himself off his bed and walked over to the door. He opened it quickly and walked out on the landing to find Bennett looking around himself at the garage.

"Yeah, just come upstairs man." Quil told him even as he turned back around and went back in.

He needed some serious caffeine today. He went to find a clean mug out of the dishwasher. He poured himself a generous serving of the piping hot coffee and then started pouring copious amounts of powdered creamer in it. Claire always made fun of him when he did this, but it was just the way we liked his coffee, a lot of powdered creamer but no real cream.

Bennett came in behind him. He walked in a few feet and looked around himself nervously.

"You want some coffee?" Quil asked him.

"Naw, I'm not allowed to have any." He said while still looking around.

"Um, what?" Quil asked. Wasn't this kid like eighteen? How much of a momma's boy was he?

Bennett finally looked at Quil.

"My mom won't let me have any because of my ADHD. The caffeine just makes it worse." He explained.

Quil laughed for a second.

"What?" Bennett asked confused but not defensive. He never really seemed to mind if Quil or Leah (or any of the other wolves for that matter) made fun of him but he just seemed like he didn't understand Quil's joke.

"When were you diagnosed with ADHD?" Quil asked.

"I don't know…maybe four years ago." He answered casually still standing in the middle of Quil's apartment.

"Yeah, you don't have ADHD. You were overactive as your body started to develop because of your wolf characteristics. Your senses were stronger than the other kids and you had more strength and energy. It happened to all of us." Quil explained to him.

"Really!? So, my mom has been pushing Adderal on me for no reason?" Bennett asked surprised.

Quil just nodded as he started to chug down his coffee, ignoring the burn down his throat. It'd heal anyways.

"Wow. That's cool." Bennett said seeming a little impressed.

Quil just laughed. He remembered how badass he thought he was when he first became a wolf and how exciting it had all been. That was so long ago though Quil felt like he couldn't even remember those feelings.

"You don't think being a wolf is cool?" Bennett asked him.

Quil just shrugged as he pulled another glass out of the dishwasher and started to fill it with water.

"Naw, it's still pretty cool, you just get used to it after over a dozen years."

"Over a dozen years?" Bennett asked shocked. "How long have you _been_ a wolf?"

"…Um, let's see..." Said Quil thinking out loud. "Claire is sixteen now so… fifteen years."

"Fifteen years!?" He seemed dazed as he said it. "Will _I_ be a wolf that long!? How old are you!?"

Quil walked over to his nightstand and grabbed a framed photo of himself with Claire when she was about six and had two missing teeth. Except for his slightly longer hair and his beard Quil looked exactly the same in the photo as he did today. He handed it to Bennett who looked at it for a second before his eyes bugged out and he asked,

"Is that Claire!?"

Quil nodded drinking his water.

"Yup." He said after he swallowed. "Not aging remember. I've looked like this since I was seventeen." He said answering the question before Bennett could ask. "I'm thirty-one as of Friday night, the same night you were born as a wolf so, hey happy shared birthday there. And no, you won't be a wolf that long. _You_ will find a nice girl and stop phasing permanently within… oh, maybe three more years and then you will get married and have a quiet supernaturally-free suburban life with your wife and six kids."

Bennett just seemed shocked as he looked up at him.

"Why didn't you do that? Why did you stay as the only one?"

"I'm not the only one. Leah's thirty-three. She would have quit phasing but has some serious anger-management issues. Collin and Brady are both twenty-eight. Collin literally has nothing better to do than be a wolf, and Brady imprinted on a fifteen-year-old a while back, so he was giving her time to age up for a few years before he stopped, but I imagine he'll stop phasing in the next couple years. Then there is Jacob, obviously you haven't met him yet, but he'll never stop. He'll just keep phasing from here until eternity."

"Never!? Like he'll keep going for forever!?" Bennett seemed like Quil had just blown his freaking mind.

"Well, we're not really sure what Renesmee's deal is since there isn't a whole lot of past experience with half-human-half-vampire love children… but as far as anyone can tell, she has stopped aging permanently so Jake will just stay around as long as she does…. didn't Leah explain all of this to you?" He asked Bennett concerned.

"Yeah, no she did. It's just so much more real when…." He trailed off as he looked back down at the picture of Quil and six-year-old Claire.

"…When you see it for yourself." Quil finished for him as he nodded. He clapped Bennett on the back. "It's a lot to take in, I know. But trust me you'll get used to it."

He walked over to his nightstand and started digging through his wallet to make sure he had his gym membership.

"That's from her, isn't it?" Bennett asked him.

"What?" Quil asked unsure of what he was talking about as he was trying to unstick his membership card from the back of his ID.

"That's her scent. I can smell it all over the place here." Bennett said in a dead voice as Quil finally looked up at him.

Bennett was inhaling her smell as he looked around the room picking it up stronger in some places than in others.

"It's like strawberries and coconut… I used to notice it even before I phased... Now it's like phew!" Bennett said as he mimed his mind being blown.

Quil had never compared Claire's scent to anything specific before but he realized that Bennett was right she did smell like strawberries and coconut.

"Yeah," he said nodding at Bennett. "She was here yesterday, that's why it's so strong right now."

Bennett just nodded, he seemed like he was trying hard to not think.

Quil sighed, taking pity on the kid and sat down in front of him on the edge of his unmade bad.

"Here sit down, Bennett." He told him.

Bennett look a little wary but sat down about a foot away from Quil on the edge of his bed.

"Did Leah tell you her and Sam's story?" Quil asked him.

"Sam? As in the last Alpha?" Bennett asked confused.

"Yeah." Quil laughed. "She was in love with him."

"Really?" Bennett asked doubtful.

"Oh yeah, they were high school sweethearts and Leah was head over heels crazy about him."

"So, what happened?" Bennett asked seeming intrigued.

"Well, at the time the wolves had been extinct for about fifty years. Sam was the first to come back, so he phased on his own. He had no idea what had happened, he was all alone but eventually he phased back to human and came back to Leah." Quil started to explain.

"Wow." Bennett said seeming shocked by the idea of being the first lone wolf.

"Yeah, well he couldn't tell Leah anything about it. He couldn't tell anyone. We're all bound to protect the pack and the tribe with our secrecy. Well Leah obviously knew he wasn't telling her the truth about what was going on with him, but she didn't care, she was going to stick it out with him no matter what. Until…."

"Until?" Bennett asked.

"Until Sam met Leah's cousin Emily and imprinted on her." Quil explained.

"Wait. Like Claire's aunt and uncle, Sam and Emily?" Bennett asked shocked.

"Yup, the very same." Quil told him.

"So, is Leah also Claire's cousin?" Bennett asked confused.

"Yeah, somehow her and Seth are like Claire's second cousins or something." Quil told him truthfully.

"Wow. The wolves really are just one big family." Bennett noted.

Quil laughed. "It seems that way sometimes. But look the point is, when Sam imprinted on Emily it sucked for everyone. It sucked for Sam living with the guilt of crushing Leah. It sucked for Emily basically being stalked by the guy who had been dating her cousin two days before, and it definitely sucked for Leah who basically just ended up alone and bitter. I mean it all worked out in the end but really it wasn't a picnic for any of them, and don't even get me started on Jake."

"Why? What happened to Jacob?" Bennett asked confused.

Quil started laughing just thinking about it. "Well Jacob, being the sucker he is, literally picked the worst girl in the world to fall in love with."

"What do you mean?" Bennett asked still confused.

"This girl, Bella, was a _MESS_ when Jake found her. Like should be institutionalized, barely functioning, crazy type." Quil started.

"What was wrong with her?" Bennett asked looking for a diagnosis.

Quil just laughed before he said, "She was in love with a vampire." He laughed again at the look on Bennett's face. "Yeah, I know, right? And he had completely dumped her. Just took off running and left her like catatonic. Well Jake didn't care, he was completely in love with her. I think she actually might have liked Jacob too but who knows because the bloodsucker came back for her."

"No!" Bennett said shocked.

"Yeah!" Quil laughed. "And Jake broke himself up fighting for her. Just so in love with her he was determined to win her away from her loverleech. Well of course that didn't work and she ends up marrying the bloodsucker, of all things, and instantly gets knocked up with….. Renesmee."

"NO! You're making this up, there is no way that's true!" Bennett told him in complete disbelief.

Quil laughed again, "Saw it all through my own eyes…. or well I guess through Jacob's eyes really… but yeah it was crazy. Sam wanted the pack to take Bella out as soon as we heard she was pregnant. We had no idea what kind of demon they had spawned. That's when Jake claimed his birthright as alpha and left Sam's pack to go fight for Bella who he was _STILL_ in love with. A few days later Renesmee popped out of her and BAM! Jacob's never been the same since."

"WOW." Bennett said like he was completely dazed by the story.

"Yeah, so look my point is that imprinting can make life complicated. I know all of this with me and Claire sucks for you, but I've been around long enough and seen enough to know that all this stuff works out okay."

Bennett seemed like he was processing everything that Quil had said before he looked at him and asked,

"So, you've been with her this entire time just waiting for her to grow up?"

Quil didn't like the way he had phrased that. In fact, the thought of him just hanging around Claire for all of these years just waiting for her to grow into his potential mate made him feel like a giant creep.

"No! Well yeah, I have been with her this whole time, but it wasn't like I was just waiting for her to spawn my babies or something. It's never been like that with us. I just HAVE to be around her. I can't function without her in my life." Quil tried to explain.

"So essentially you have just been hanging out with her this whole time." Bennett asked still confused.

Quil shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess so." He didn't feel like that adequately explained his relationship with Claire, but he didn't know how to explain it any better. "Up until four months ago."

"Wait… what?" Bennet asked clearly confused again.

Quil blew out a big breath and admitted, "I didn't handle it great when you took Claire to homecoming. I kind of freaked out actually." He said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So, the next day she told me that you had asked her to be your girlfriend and asked me to leave her alone and give her some space for a while." Quil explained while leaving out some of the more intimate details. "I hadn't seen her again until Friday."

"Wait really? She didn't see you the entire time we were together?" Bennett asked before giving a tight inhale of breath and putting his head in his hand.

"Yeah. What did you think, she was just sneaking me in after you left every night?" Quil asked surprised.

Bennett just shrugged his shoulders as he rubbed his forehead. All of this talk of Claire must be really messing with his head.

"Well then you don't know Claire very well. She's very loyal. When she committed to you she meant it and she kicked me to the curb." Quil said offended that Bennett didn't know this about her.

Bennett seemed like his pain level was increasing but he asked,

"How did you do it? How did you stand being without her? I thought you said you HAVE to be with her to function?"

"I do." Quil admitted. "I wasn't functioning, and I did some seriously stupid shit before she let me come back." He finished while thinking for the millionth time how stupid it was that he had been about to have sex with Leah.

"Wow. That sounds like it sucked." Bennett said clearly grateful for a less painful change of subject.

"Uh, YEAH! It did. I _CAN'T_ be without her and there she was asking me for space."

Bennett surprised him by saying, "Man, imprinting seems like a bitch."

Quil laughed at this surprising summary.

"Yeah it can be." He admitted. "Don't tell Claire I said that!" he finished quickly.

"Um, I'm pretty much the last person to tell Claire anything anymore." Bennett said shaking his head.

It seemed like he was getting better at mentioning Claire without completely falling apart.

Shaking his head to try to clear it Quil said, "Alright, enough talking about our feelings. Let's go work out already."

He stood up. Bennett seemed grateful for the distraction and followed Quil right behind him as he went to put a shirt and his shoes on.

"Should I find a shirt?" Bennett asked.

"Nope kid, you got to get used to wearing the bear minimum until you can guarantee that you won't be shredding all your clothes. You probably won't wear a shirt for another 3 years." Quil explained before he continued,

"'kay well let's get out of here. Do you want to run or drive to the gym?"

"Run, definitely!" Bennett said immediately.

"We have to run as people." Quil said quickly.

"Eh shit. Then drive for sure." Was Bennett's response.

Quil laughed as he led Bennett out to his car. This kid really was meant to be a wolf.

 ***Author's note***

 **So originally, I uploaded the wrong revision of chapter 12. I have since replaced it with the correct version but if there is any confusion or if you're curious about the changes feel free to skim back through it. If not, that's fine too. It was a long chapter and none of the changes affect (or maybe** _ **effect**_ **…. I never know with that one….) the overall storyline. Sorry for the mishap. Hope y'all are getting through the week alright and are enjoying the direction of the story! That's all! xoxo**


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

 **Claire:**

Claire woke up the next morning and knew that the day was going to be a rough one. She had already prepared herself for it, but it didn't seem to make getting out of bed any easier. She laid there at six am with her alarm ringing on her phone before she finally reached over and grabbed it, sliding her finger across it to silence it while she resisted the urge to smack it as hard as she could until it stopped buzzing. She laid back down rubbing at her right shoulder trying to stave off the soreness from her shoulder being stuck in the same position for so long. She had accidentally slept with her casted arm draped across her chest and her shoulder shumlped forward at an odd angle. There was a small knock on her door and Rachel popped her head in.

"You ready to start? I want to get you ready before I shower and get ready myself."

"Yeah, thanks, Rach. Here just let me brush my teeth and wash my face first." Claire said finally getting out of bed.

She went into the bathroom she was now sharing with Rachel and got ready quickly while Rachel heated up the curling iron. She had asked Rachel (when she had caught her sneaking in after being out late with Travis) if she would help her do her hair and get ready today. She had showered after Quil had left so she wouldn't have to in the morning while trying to get ready.

"So," Rachel started as Claire sat down on the stool and Rachel started brushing out her hair, "are you going to tell me why you wanted to look so killer today?"

Claire sighed out deeply, "I just thought it might make today a little easier at school is all…"

"What's going on at school?" Rachel asked her concerned.

"I just decided that I can't hide behind Bennett's absence anymore. I have to spread the word that we broke up." Claire confessed as Rachel started to wrap the first length of her hair around the curling iron.

"Wow. You're definitely brave! No wonder you want to look good today." Rachel sympathized.

"Yup!" Claire replied as she put her face in her hand. "Ugh!" she groaned. "Today is going to suck!"

"Why don't you just wait until Bennett comes back to school before you make the break up official, that way he can at least take some of the heat with you?" Rachel asked.

"Because I don't want him to have to take heat. I'm hoping that I can get the worst of it and then it won't be so bad for him when he comes back. I've put him through enough as it is, this is the least I can do." She explained while looking up at Rachel in the mirror.

"What did you do? None of this is your fault." Rachel pointed out.

"Yeah, I wish. Everything is a mess and Bennett is getting the worst of it for sure. He is seriously hurting Rachel _because_ he loves me, that doesn't exactly leave me blameless." Claire argued.

"How could you possibly have known that he would turn out to be Quil's half-brother and then phase out of nowhere!?" Rachel said emphatically making Claire smile.

"Well I should at least have recognized his symptoms. Geeze, Rachel, I feel so stupid! His temperature was over a hundred degrees the _entire_ time we were together, and I didn't even notice!" Claire confided to her sister.

Rachel just bit her lip and shrugged. Clearly, she was also having a hard time excusing that massive oversight.

"I don't want to talk about Bennett anymore, there's nothing anyone can do about it and it just hurts to think about him…" Claire said as she shook her head trying to shake off her discouragement.

"Okay. Well…. Can we talk about Quil?" Rachel asked while raising her eyebrows.

Claire just breathed out a slow breath, she didn't really want to talk about Quil either.

"What about him?" She tried to ask casually.

"Well what happened after Saturday? Did he have any sort of good reason for hooking up with Leah?" Rachel prodded for details since they hadn't talked about it since Saturday afternoon.

"Well, yeah actually he did…." Claire said hesitantly.

Rachel gave her an expectant look over Claire's head into the mirror.

"…. He was in pain…" she explained lamely.

"That's it? And that was enough for you to just take him back. How do you even know he's telling the truth? That sounds like a line to me." Rachel argued skeptically.

"Because I _know_ Quil, better than anyone, and because…. Well the truth is…. even before Bennett phased, I was in pain without him too. I don't know, Rachel, we're obviously not meant to live our lives without each other and I just can't keep pushing him away anymore." Claire confessed while looking at her left hand as she grabbed the bathroom counter in front of her.

"So, you just forgave him?" Rachel asked sincerely. She didn't sound skeptical anymore, just like she was honestly curious about how Claire felt.

Claire shrugged, "Not at first. At first, I was _REALLY_ upset, but then I guess I sort of did the same thing and then I suddenly understood why he did it. Plus, it's not like we've ever made any sort of commitments to each other… he's within his rights to hook up with whoever he wants to... I mean I was the one who had a boyfriend and pushed him away."

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Rachel said reasonably, "But still, that's quite the way for you to find out he was hooking up with someone…. Especially someone you're close with."

Claire just made a face as she nodded her head in agreement.

"Wait, what do you mean you did the same thing? What did you do?" Rachel asked confused.

Claire bit her lip, she was starting to regret getting into this conversation.

"Claire?" Rachel asked expectantly, "What did you do?"

"I …. He… He kissed me on Saturday night. Quil kissed me and at first I only kissed him back because…. well … because I was in pain, and when he kissed me I wasn't anymore. I'm not proud of it, but I know that he isn't proud of what happened with Leah; I know that he regrets it so… I don't know, maybe that puts us on an even playing field I guess…" Claire tried to explain and not feeling like she was doing an adequate job.

Rachel's eyebrows looked like they were reaching for her hairline. She didn't say anything as she looked down at Claire's hair that she was halfway through curling before she processed everything Claire had told her.

"He kissed you? Wasn't that a little…. well, weird… I mean you two have been so platonic for _so_ long..." Rachel asked her curiously.

Claire just pressed her lips together and looked at Rachel as she shook her head no.

"No? It wasn't weird?" Rachel laughed with understanding, "Are you saying it was good!?"

Claire just shrugged and looked down embarrassed.

Rachel misunderstood her shrug, "Ooh that bad, huh? That sucks, Claire. Talk about a let-down." She said sympathetically.

"No! It wasn't bad! At all!" Claire said instantly.

"Oh!" said Rachel surprised, "So, if not bad than…. good?"

Claire blushed and looked down as she sighed out, "Very."

"Wow, really? Go Quil!" Rachel laughed.

Rachel was almost finished curling Claire's hair, but she didn't seem eager to drop the conversation.

"Alright, Claire, you're at least stuck here while I do your hair so you better spill! How good was this kiss?"

Claire started to feel engaged with the girl talk despite her embarrassment. After all, she figured if she couldn't trust her sister, who could she trust?

"Alright, I mean it was _really_ good." She confessed.

"Better than with Bennett?" Rachel asked clearly intrigued.

Claire's heart dropped, and she could feel it written all over her face.

"Sorry! You said you didn't want to talk about Bennett." Rachel quickly apologized.

"It's just…. I don't want to compare the two of them against each other." Claire said already feeling ashamed of the conversation. "Kissing Bennett felt different, that's all, but it didn't mean any less to me." She told Rachel honestly.

"Really, Claire, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trivialize what Bennett meant to you." Rachel apologized quickly.

Claire just nodded as her eyes pooled with tears she was determined not to shed. "Thanks for getting up to do my hair!" she tried to say brightly hoping to change the subject.

"No problem. Now let's go get you dressed then I'll hop in the shower and you can do your makeup at the counter." Rachel replied willingly letting the subject drop.

They went back into Claire's bedroom where Rachel kindly helped Claire take off her pajamas and put on her bra. Claire insisted that she could do the rest by herself, so Rachel went to shower while Claire spent the next twenty minutes laying on her bed trying to squirm her way into her skinny jeans while yanking them up with just her left hand. Rachel was already finished with her shower by the time Claire managed to get them on.

She wouldn't have bothered with them, but she just felt so fierce in them. They were a dark wash and had rips all the way up her thighs that somehow made her feel tough but hot. She definitely needed that confident boost today. She had had Rachel help her put on her most sexy bra. It was dark navy and lacy. She felt that having that as a secret weapon would help give her that extra boost of confidence even if no one knew she was wearing it. She didn't want to be overdressed so she settled for her favorite softest white V-neck t-shirt. She thought that the comfort of it might even help her get through today. It did have some small unintentional rips in the front, but she figured that her sling would cover them anyways, so she threw caution to the wind and threw it on.

Rachel popped her head in from the bathroom, "Hey you better hurry if you want to ride with me. I don't want to be late the first day we take 'the new car!'." She quoted unenthusiastically.

When Rachel had gotten home the night before Claire had explained the whole situation to her. Rachel was just as mystified by the car as she was and they had taken to making fun of their parents behind their backs who kept referring to it as 'the new car!'.

"I just need like ten to fifteen more minutes to do my makeup." Claire assured her.

"Uh…. Okay, but hurry. I'll help Jamie get ready to give you more time." Rachel said as she pulled her head back into the bathroom.

"Thank you!" Claire yelled after her. She gave up on the idea of asking Rachel to help her put on her converses and settled for quickly slipping on her ballet flats (again) and quickly packing her backpack before she ran into the bathroom to do her makeup. Since she didn't have much time but still wanting to look on point Claire decided to recreate the red lipstick look she had worn the first day she came back to school after her accident the week before. She immediately plopped on the stool she had sat on while Rachel did her hair and got to work.

True to her word she was finished ten minutes later but then decided she needed one more thing. She pulled out her bronzer and started carving out her cheek bones before she contoured her nose. _Yes. That's Perfect!_ Claire thought as she looked at her reflection. Even with her stitched-up face and broken arm she looked fierce with her sharp cheekbones and nose, simple cat-eye and bright red lips. She smiled confidently as she slid the same earrings she had worn to homecoming in her ears and ran down to meet Rachel and Jamie as they ran out the door.

Just as Claire was sliding into the passenger seat of the Jetta (a.k.a 'the new car!') Rachel said, "Claire, you know that you can see your entire bra through that shirt, right?"

"What!?" gasped Claire alarmed as she looked down her left side.

Sure enough, she could almost see each individual piece of navy lace through her sheer white shirt. She hadn't noticed it when she looked in the mirror because she couldn't see anything below her chest while sitting on the stool to do her makeup.

"Well the good news is your sling covers most of the front and with your hair down and backpack no will see the back!" Rachel said, trying to make her feel better about it since there was no time to go back.

"And then what? Just try to cover my left boob all day?" Claire asked slightly panicked while looking over at Rachel.

"What happened to your boob?" Jamie asked curiously from the back seat.

"Nothing!" Claire and Rachel said at the same time while laughing.

"Don't say 'boob' Jamie, it's not nice." Rachel told him.

"But Claire just said it!" He argued indignantly.

"Yeah but I can say it because I'm a grown-up, it's just creepy when kids say it." Claire told him while Rachel nodded in agreement.

"But Quil said you weren't a grown-up yet and that's why he couldn't be with you." Jamie told her.

Claire and Rachel instantly looked over at each other, both concerned about this new information.

"Quil told you that?" Claire asked him hesitantly.

"Mmm-hmm" Jamie affirmed.

"You didn't know?" Rachel whispered quietly to Claire so that Jamie wouldn't notice.

She shook her head at Rachel in response. "Apparently he still thinks I need to grow up. He _did_ say the kiss was something to remember _until_ we could be together." She whispered quickly back.

Rachel just gave her an apologetic look as she shrugged her shoulders. Claire wasn't sure how she should feel about this new piece of information. Her age difference with Quil had never really bothered her before and it certainly hadn't felt like it made a difference to him over the last few days. Ultimately, she decided it probably didn't matter anyways since Quil had already told her they wouldn't be together for another five years at least.

They quickly dropped Jamie off at daycare and Rachel ran in with him while Claire flipped down the visor to look in the small mirror and try to see how noticeable her bra was from the front.

It was very noticeable. She tried to brush her hair in front of her left side but had little impact on the effect. Finally, she just snapped up the visor as Rachel was getting back in the car, deciding that since (like every other problem in her life) she couldn't do anything about it, she would just try to not stress about it.

 _So much for the extra-confidence of looking fierce today,_ she thought to herself as her heart dropped when they quickly pulled up to the school. She just took a deep breath and decided to face things head on as she got out of the car.

Less than three minutes later she was walking down the hall to her locker to get her textbook before Algebra 2 when it seemed like every single person she walked past stopped to look at her. Tony Fitz, a Junior from the basketball team actually whistled and said, "Damn, Claire!" as he blatantly checked her out from head to foot and back again when she walked past.

She was horrified. Was her look really inviting this type of reaction? She made it quickly to her locker where she tried to hide as best she could by facing into it and holding the door close to her until the halls had at least cleared. The bell had rung before she quickly grabbed her book and ran to Algebra 2, where she walked in late.

Just like a week ago, everyone turned to look at her. Unlike a week ago there was no Bennett to rescue her as she got a much stronger reaction from her ensemble than she had anticipated. Boys were looking at her appreciatively while paying far more attention to her than she wanted from any of them. Girls immediately leaned in together to whisper about her while still continuing to turn and look at her. Even the teacher said, "Wow, what's happening there?"

Claire immediately took her seat and slunk down as far as she could before looking over to see the empty seat next to her that use to hold someone who always made her feel better about crappy situations. Her heart gave a pang at the emptiness that the chair held.

By the end of first period, kids were referring to her as the 'New Scarlet Letter'. Claire basically ran directly to second period which was a relief to be in. At least nobody paid any attention to her in Home Ec. She was working on a baking lab with Macy and was just trying not to think of anything except the recipe they were supposed to be following when Macy asked,

"So, where is Bennett? I thought he was supposed to be back by now."

 _Uh-oh,_ Claire thought to herself. She wasn't prepared for this conversation after her disastrous morning.

"Um, I'm not sure..." Claire tried to say as nonchalantly as possible.

"What? What do you mean?" Macy laughed, "He's your boyfriend, you always know where he is."

"Um… yeah, I'm just not so sure…" she tried to brush her off.

"Oh my gosh, is it drugs!? Is he involved with something and you can't control him anymore!? You know I heard he was on steroids now…" Macy immediately started speculating.

"No! It's nothing like that!" Claire said immediately wanting to put any nasty rumors about him to rest.

"Than what is it!?" Macy pestered her.

"It's…. we… it's just…." Claire flustered with no idea of how to continue.

"What Claire?"

It was clear Macy wasn't going to let it drop.

Claire took a deep breath, she had already decided to do this, and she just needed to get it over with.

"We broke up." She admitted while looking down at the countertop in front of her.

"You WHAT!?" Macy almost screamed. A few people turned to look around at them.

"Shh!" Claire tried to quiet her.

"Are you out of your mind, Claire!? Bennett Callahan? It doesn't get _any_ better than Bennett Callahan!" Macy continued loudly.

"It's….. I….. We didn't….. I just…" she was completely flustered, and the emotions of their undecided break up suddenly weigh down on her chest like a ton of bricks and to her utter horror, she burst into tears. She quickly put her left hand up to her face to try to hide her mortification and the fact that she was obviously crying.

"Oh. My. Damn!" Macy immediately said, "He dumped you!" she said like she had just solved the world's greatest mystery. "I should have known it was way too good to be true!"

Claire didn't bother correcting her, what would she even say, _'No, it was a mutually traumatizing event that forced us apart'_?she just focused on getting the tears to stop as Macy awkwardly patted her shoulder in what she could only assume was meant to be a comforting gesture.

By third period she was sent to the Dean's office where she was RPCed. Her outfit was deemed inappropriate for school both because of its revealing nature and its intended message. Normally an inappropriate outfit just required a warning.

"Intended message!?" a shocked Claire argued with the dean.

"Miss Young, are you honestly going to try to tell me you didn't understand the message this was sending when you chose to dress this way? You're revealing skin on both your midriff and your legs and can clearly see your entire bra through your shirt, and I won't even bother commenting on your lipstick." He said skeptically while gesturing to her sitting in front of him.

 _What the crap is wrong with my lipstick!?_ Claire thought to herself. Somehow that was the only thing that had stuck out to her. She quickly tried to focus again as he continued,

"You'll have to change. Now due to your current condition" (he gestured to her broken arm) "and the fact that we can't see your underwear on your _lower_ half, I'll only make you change your top if you'll agree to not wear those pants to school again."

Claire was fuming. It was humiliating. She just tried to swallow her tongue along with all of the nasty comments she wanted to lash back out at him and nodded her head in agreement.

"Very good. The secretary will give you a shirt to change into. Have a good day, Miss Young."

He hadn't even looked back up at her. She got up without responding and walked out of his office. The secretary simply said, "Here." and shoved a men's XL P.E. shirt at her.

Somehow that did it for Claire.

"FINE!" she snapped as she grabbed the shirt.

She threw her backpack down on the ground, took a step back so that she was smack in front of the window to the dean's office from where she was standing in the outer reception area. She quickly pulled her sling off tossing it next to her backpack and grabbed the hem of her t-shirt and roughly yanked it up over her head and then quickly pulled it over her cast and threw it on the floor. She made sure to maintain direct eye-contact with the obnoxious-apparently-omniscient dean as she stood in just her bra before she pulled on the massive gym shirt.

That's where the RPC came in. She spent the rest of third period and forth period and half her lunch hour in the dean's office while they tried unsuccessfully to call her parents at work. Finally, after letting her sit for hours they informed her that they were sending a note home to her parents and that this 'little incident' would be recorded on her permanent record before dismissing her just in time for the warning bell.

She hadn't eaten breakfast and now she had missed lunch. Shaking slightly, she ran her hand through her hair before shulphing down the hall in her massive gym shirt on her way to fifth period. She didn't know which was more embarrassing; her original shirt with everyone staring at her as she walked down the hall or this shirt with everyone staring at her as she walked down the hall.

Fifth period past with kids continually turning around to look at her and then turning to their neighbor to whisper something. It wasn't until Claire was walking into sixth period History, another class she had with Bennett, that she overheard some of the whispers.

" _Yeah, I heard Bennett completely dumped her."_

" _Really?! They seemed so happy together!"_

" _Yeah and she's been begging him to take her back! That's why she came dressed like that today, I guess she thought she could provoke him into taking her back if she got enough attention from other guys."_

Claire hadn't even seen who had said it. They were two girls walking behind her in the hall. She just walked into History without looking behind her, slapped her backpack down on her desk, sat down, and placed her left hand on top of her backpack as she leaned all the way forward until her head was on top of her fist with her hair fanning out around her providing her with a small amount of privacy.

She usually tried her best to look at the bright side of things, but she honestly didn't know how to put a positive spin on this. Today had been so awful her only consolation was that it was almost over. She could get out of here in just one more hour but until then she couldn't give any of these people the satisfaction of knowing that this was getting to her.

She quickly sat back up while putting on her best poker face and stared straight forward. She did that for the rest of class and fortunately the hour passed without event. When the bell rang to release school she had to go back to the dean's office to get her original shirt. When she walked in he was waiting for her in the reception area and immediately said,

"Ah Miss Young, there you are. Here's your shirt. You may change in the appropriate locker room this time and I hope today has taught you a lesson about the messages you are sending about yourself to all the people around you. How can you expect anyone to respect you if you don't respect yourself?"

Claire thought about literally pulling the same stunt that she had just been RPCed for and then asking him what message that sent. Instead she just grabbed her shirt out of his hand and turned to walk out but before she could get away he said,

"I'd think about that message, Miss Young. You never know what people might think of you."

The words he said were all normal enough, but the sleazy way he had said it with his eyebrows up made her completely uncomfortable.

She immediately took about four steps back away from him before she turned around and booked it out of there.

He called something after her, but Claire didn't catch it, not that she wanted to. She went to the girl's restroom as far from his office as possible before locking herself in a stall and changing her shirt. It took about ten minutes to change because she was shaking so much and was so keyed up.

When she finally finished changing she came out of the stall with the XL P.E. shirt in her hand. She wasn't sure what to do with it. She knew she was supposed to return the shirt but there was no way she was going back to that dean's office. She finally just balled it up and chucked it in the garbage can.

By the time she came out of the bathroom the school was pretty much cleared out and it was already about fifteen minutes after school had ended. She jogged out to the front of the school and looked around for a second trying to remember how she was supposed to get home, before she spotted Quil's Camaro in the parking lot.

In that moment, the Camaro was her safe haven. She sprinted to it. The windows were rolled down again and Quil hadn't noticed her. He was scrolling through the music on his phone until he heard her open the passenger door.

"Hey, I thought you said to pick you up- Whoa!" he cut off in the middle of saying something once he got a look at her.

She didn't look at him, she just slid into the car and threw her backpack into the back seat roughly. Too roughly. She had channeled all of her frustration into the throw and the backpack hit the backseat and bounced off before hitting the back of Quil's seat and then landing on the floor.

She reached around awkwardly with her left arm to slam the door closed behind her but looked up when she heard Quil say, " _WHOA!_ " again before looking away from her.

She looked down and realized when she had lifted her left arm and reached over he had had clearly seen the entire left side of her bra through her shirt.

She didn't say anything. She just slammed her head against the headrest before she slid down as far as she could against the seat back so that her hair pulled up above her before falling forward on top of her face. She just left it there as the awkward moment sat between them before Quil said,

"So… bad day huh?"

"Yup." She said curtly.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Nope."

"So… to Treeport?"

"Eh!" she gasped as she slapped her face and ironically hit her stitches painfully. "The appointment! Oh no! Quil, I can't go like this! I have to find a shirt! I'm going to be so late! But I swear I am not going back to that school until I have my stitches out! I'll have a hard-enough time showing my face as is-"

And then she was sobbing. She was still shlumped over in her seat, she couldn't breathe so she straightened up again as she tried to control herself.

"Hey!" Quil said immediately concerned, he pulled her across the console so that her head was in his chest, but she was leaning awkwardly over it.

"Ow. Quil, this is so uncomfortable it's not helping at all."

She suddenly started laughing as he let go of her and helped to straighten her back out.

"What's so funny?" he asked confused.

"Nothing! My day was literally _so_ awful it's now funny. Like how could it _possibly be THAT_ bad!? But it was!"

"Okay, honey, maybe just take a breath and let's regroup here. Your appointment is in half an hour, right?"

She was breathing obediently like he had said but she nodded at him.

"Okay, it'll take us about fifteen to twenty minutes to get there so let's just hurry and I'll take you home first, so you can change, alright?"

She gave him a tight smile as she reached up and pulled her hair out of her face and held it back from her hairline as she nodded. He started the car and pulled out quickly. They made it back to her house in about three minutes where he stayed in the car to wait for her while she ran inside to change.

She left the front door open behind her as she ran in and then upstairs. She was the only one home, so she left her door open as she quickly took off her sling and then what used to be her favorite shirt before throwing it to the floor. But then she looked at all of shirts in her dresser drawer and saw only a barrage of pastels and whites. Nothing that would cover the dark color of her bra that she couldn't change by herself.

She immediately gave up on her dresser and turned to her closet, but still nothing. She was about to scream in frustration when she saw a shirt on the bathroom floor that Rachel must have tried on and then thrown on the floor when she changed her mind.

Claire quickly grabbed it. It was a black fitted flannel button up that had a bright blue plaid pattern on it. Claire quickly pulled her cast through the right arm of it and then pushed the sleeve up to over the elbow, so it wasn't covering the cast in a weird way. She then fed her left arm through it before pulling it forward over her shoulders. It fit well. Thankfully her and Rachel were similar in size and build.

She grabbed her sling and quickly put it back on over the still open shirt. She was trying to walk down the stairs and button it at the same time but was struggling to button with just her left hand. By the time she had gotten to the bottom of the stairs she had only buttoned the bottom two buttons. She managed the third by the time she got to the front door. She stopped quickly to slam the door closed behind her and then managed the forth by the time she got back to the car. She quickly slid in with a "Let's go!" and then slammed the car door with her left hand before sliding back and attacking the next button.

Quil was on the way by the time she got the fifth button and then….

"Oh! You have _GOT_ to be _KIDDING_ me!" she shrieked.

"What!?" asked Quil concerned.

There were no more buttons. The top most button came to right about her bra line and then there were no more.

"It's a _FREAKING_ cleavage shirt! This doctor is going to be the second man today to think I'm trying to seduce him with my outfit!" she fumed as she slapped her hand to her face. "Ow!" she whined softly when it hurt.

"Do you want me to go back?" Quil asked concerned.

"No." Claire said into her hand. "I don't even have anything that wouldn't show this bra through it, and I can't change into another one by myself."

It was silent in the car for a moment. She could tell Quil was about to say something when she cut across him,

"Don't even offer, Quil!"

"I wasn't going to!" he said slightly defensively.

She blew out a breath and dropped her hand before she began more calmly,

"I'm sorry. What were you going to say then?"

"I was going to ask why you would wear that bra to begin with?" he asked looking over at her for a moment before looking back at the road.

It seemed like a fair question and in hind sight it did seem like an incredibly stupid idea now.

"I don't know, this morning wearing a sexy bra seemed like a good idea." She said slightly exasperated. "I thought I'd _feel_ better if I looked better today and it _COMPLETELY_ backfired. The bra was _supposed_ to be my secret." She explained more calmly.

He didn't say anything. He just reached over and grabbed her hand, he gave it a squeeze and then said calmly,

"You don't have to try to be beautiful, Claire. You just are."

She paused to digest his sincere compliment. It had immediately brought back a memory of Bennett to the front of her mind;

He had just won a baseball game in late fall and they had only been dating a few weeks. He was going to take her home after they met everyone at Bubba's to celebrate their victory. They had been about to leave the field when Bennett couldn't find his glove. They had ended up searching through his car as the crowd left around them and their friends left to save a table at the diner.

They were both leaning into the backseat through the open back doors. Claire on the passenger side and Bennett on the driver side. It was getting late and he was hoping to find it before it got too dark and was potentially lost forever. Almost all of the crowd had already dispersed and they were some of the last people there. It was lightly raining like normal but was starting to pick up as they searched, and Claire could feel the butt of her jeans getting wet as she leaned into the car searching through his gym bag and the ridiculous amounts of cd's he had in his car. Bennett was the only person that Claire even knew that owned physical cd's, it was one of those specific things about him that made him so unique. He was truly one in a million, or at least in Claire's mind he was.

She had been feeling around the floor of the car with her hand when she noticed Bennett stop his search. She looked up at him. He was just staring at her from about eight inches away. She smiled at him and said, "Hi!". He didn't say anything, he didn't even smile, he just dropped the cleats in his hand and grabbed her face as he came in swiftly and kissed her intensely.

Claire was surprised but definitely not unresponsive, she quickly climbed into the backseat to get out of the rain, slamming the door shut behind her while she brought herself closer to him. He came closer to her, crawling on the backseat with his knees so he didn't have to drop her face in his hands. It was the first time they had kissed passionately like that instead of just the soft sincere kisses he usually gave her. Claire was almost overwhelmed with the feel of him as his lips explored hers and his tongue found its way into her mouth.

After a few intense moments alone in the backseat they pulled back to catch their breaths. It was pouring and dark outside of the car making the small backseat feel incredibly cozy and private.

Bennett had to clear his throat and his voice was rough when he said,

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to just attack you like that without any warning." He was looking at her hand intertwined with his own and was running his thumb over her knuckles.

She laughed and said, "I didn't mind too much." before she winked at him.

He gave her his trademark goofy grin and said, "Hey, I never told you how much like your shirt! I love it, Claire! Best surprise ever!"

Claire had surprised him by taking a gray baseball shirt with green sleeves and painting his number _17_ on the back with _Callahan_ above it, across her shoulders.On the front she had done a large _CPHS baseball_. She was excited to come to one of his games as just a fan to route for him instead of there to cheerlead.

"Thanks! It's my fan shirt!" she told him as she squeezed his hand encasing hers.

"Oh? I've never had a fan before! It's nice seeing my number on someone much prettier than me." He said quietly. He was almost whispering as he leaned in for another kiss.

She returned his soft, sweet kiss and was about to deepen it again when he suddenly pulled back and said,

"Seeing my last name on you wasn't too bad either!"

He laughed as she blushed deeply in response.

"Yeah? Didn't mind that?" she quietly asked meeting his gaze again.

"Yeah, I mean I'll have to take it into consideration if you're truly worthy of the prestigious Callahan name..." he teased her, "Did you even spell it correctly?"

"Psh!" she scoffed, "Of course, I did!" She was suddenly alarmed that she hadn't double checked before she wore it publicly. "I did spell it correctly, right!?"

She quickly dropped his hand and turned so her back was to him while pulling her long hair over her shoulder so that he could see it.

He laughed as he ran his fingers over it.

"I'm seeing an extra Q that I'm not sure fits." He teased her, and she quickly reached behind her to playfully slap his leg as punishment.

He grabbed her hand on his leg as he continued to run his fingers over his last name on the back of her shirt. As he moved his fingers down to his number his fingers snagged the clasp of her bra as he ran over it and it popped apart.

Claire didn't even stop to think about it. She was barely faced away from him so that he could see her back. She quickly flipped back around to face him, and she brought her free hand up and slapped it across his face as hard as she could while her left hand was still intertwined with his on his leg. There was a loud _SMACK!_ That rang through the car as soon as her hand made contact with the soft skin of his cheek.

As soon as she did it she was completely shocked at herself. The second she stopped to think about what had happened it was clear that it was an accident and that he hadn't lured her into the dark backseat of his car with ulterior motives.

She gasped and dropped his hand as she brought both of her hands over her shocked wide-open mouth. It was completely silent in the car for a single second before she immediately tried to apologize.

"Oh my Gosh, Bennett! I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking! I just…. Your car….and my bra… I'm so sorry!"

To her surprise he actually started laughing as he reached his hand up to the visibly red spot on his cheek and started to rub at it.

Claire was mortified by her reaction. This incredibly sweet boy had been having an almost perfect moment with her and she had slapped him across the face as hard as she could over literally nothing. He was going to think she was one of those scary, high-maintenance girls that always got into really volatile relationships just for the drama. What if he didn't want to see her anymore after this!?

"Bennett! I can't believe I did that! I'm really sorry!" She whispered mortified.

He was still laughing but he stopped to say, "It's okay, Claire. But damn…. you don't need anyone to protect you, do you? For a small girl you can definitely take care of yourself! I wouldn't have even thought your little hand _had_ THATmuch power behind it!"

She laughed, relieved that he wasn't upset as she quickly reached up with her hands to tenderly grab his face on each side and inspect her inflicted damage. She was really hoping it wasn't going to bruise.

She had been staring at his cheek and rubbing it softly with her thumb when he reached up and put his hands on either side of her arms and rubbed them tenderly with his thumbs.

She looked up at his eyes to see him staring at her. She smiled tentatively at him before he whispered,

"You're so beautiful, and you don't even try…"

The memory had literally swept her away for a second until Quil squeezed her hand and said, "Claire?" clearly worried that he had offended her when he had called her beautiful.

"Sorry! I was just trying to rate how slutty I actually came across today on a scale of one to ten. Like you said, I was trying way too hard." She said quickly before he would notice her preoccupation.

"That's not what I said!" he responded.

"No, I know. You always think I'm beautiful." She said appreciatively as she gave his hand a tender squeeze. "But I'm pretty sure you are as biased as you could possibly be. I mean you literally have a magical influence trying to attract you to me as much as supernaturally possible, so…"

She had played off the moment alright, but she could still feel the tears pooling in her eyes at the memory and had to look out the window to make sure that Quil wouldn't notice them before she could swallow them back down.

"You think I don't know if you're beautiful or not?" Quil asked disbelievingly.

Grateful for the distraction she quickly swallowed down her tears with a casual sniff before she said,

"It's more you're genetically predisposed to think so, right?"

"If that's the case than why is literally half of my pack attracted to you? Are they _all_ 'genetically predisposed' too?" he argued after a moment.

She had to look at him in disbelieve. She started laughing quickly realizing he was just teasing her.

"I'm serious!" he said with a deadpan face.

"No, you aren't." she said looking back out the window as they pulled into Treeport. "But, I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about today."

It was silent for a moment as he pulled onto the main road that the hospital was on.

"Four out of six." He said suddenly.

"I'm sorry?" Claire asked confused.

"Four out of the six members of my pack have been attracted to you. Of the two that weren't one was Leah and the other Jacob who has been happily married for ten years. You try arguing with those numbers." He told her as he quickly looked over to make eye contact while he pulled into the parking lot.

Claire was shocked. That couldn't possibly be right. Bennett had obviously been attracted to her before he became a wolf and Quil had mentioned that Collin had had the hots for her before, but she figured that that just meant he had occasionally noticed her. She highly doubted that Brady had ever been attracted to her. They had always had a great causal relationship and Claire loved Sophia (Brady's imprint that was only a few years older than her), she had felt like they were two peas in the same pod. It seemed incredibly unlikely that Brady had ever felt anything physical or otherwise towards her.

That just left Quil himself. He had never admitted to being attracted to her before. There had clearly been some sort of flame burning between them the last few days, but Claire figured most of that had to be from the imprintation drawing them to each other while they had such strong emotions driving them apart, especially since he basically still considered her to be a child.

The more she thought about it the more ridiculous it seemed. Collin was really the only realistic idea of a wolf that might be attracted to her but even then, Claire couldn't imagine him noticing her for more than a second before moving onto whatever current co-ed he was chasing after.

She just laughed for a moment, "Sure, Quil. Sure."

Quil seemed like he was starting to get upset. He had parked the car and was starting to pull his hand away, but she squeezed it tighter.

"Look, Quil, I really appreciate what you're trying to say to me but it's unnecessary. I'm okay with who I am, including the way I look. You are honestly probably the reason I always have been. Your constant love has never left any room for self-doubt or loathing, and I'm incredibly grateful. I just _hate_ this idea that I somehow _started_ the rumor that I'm now easy because Bennett dumped me, just by the way I was dressed today…" she explained.

He seemed less upset after her explanation. He didn't say anything, he just leaned over to her, grabbed the side of her head and pulled her slightly to him as he planted a kiss on top of her hair. He leaned the side of his face on top of her hair resting his cheek on her head for a moment. He breathed out for a second before he said suddenly,

"Whoa! Okaayy!"

He quickly dropped her and leaned away from her.

"What!?" she asked confused and concerned as he started digging around in the console between them.

"That's just a _lot_ of cleavage…." He replied without looking up from the console.

Claire gasped as she slapped her hand up to cover her chest and looked down to see the same view that Quil had had a second before. She could see all the way down her shirt to her belly button. There on display was all of her cleavage and her 'sexy bra'. She slapped her hand up to her mouth as she was sure that she turned a dark embarrassed red. Quil had seen her in just a bra about a million times before but somehow seeing it all down her shirt while she was wearing _that_ bra just made it feel different this time.

She slid back down in her seat, mortified and wanting to die. At least at that angle her shirt rested against her chest covering most her instead of gaping open.

"I can't go in there." She whispered as she closed her eyes and pulled her hand up to cover her eyes and forehead trying to block her face from Quil's view.

"AH-Hah! Yes, you can! Look what I found!" Quil said victoriously.

Claire hesitantly looked up to see him holding up a safety pin he had found in the console.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said instantly relieved.

She sat back up and grabbed it from him. She quickly started to pull her shirt together about four inches above the last button, but she couldn't get the pin in and hold it together with only one hand.

Quil watched her struggle for just a moment before he blew out a big breath and then asked tentatively, "Do you need some help?"

Claire was embarrassed that she needed it, but it was clear she did, so she nodded and said, "Please?"

She held her top together as best she could while Quil reached down into her shirt to pin it from the inside, so the safety pin wouldn't hang out the front. She noticed his hand give a slight tremor as he initially reached down her top, but his hands seemed steady as he quickly pinned it together.

"There you go." He said quickly pulling his hands away.

His voice seemed steady, but he looked away from her as he said it.

 _Great, just another horrifying experience for today_. She thought to herself as she said quietly, "Thanks."

He didn't respond as she sat forward and looked down to see a much more reasonable amount of skin being exposed.

"Okay!" she said trying to put the uncomfortable moment behind them. "Is that decent now?"

He looked over at her quickly and his eyes narrowed as he evaluated her. He still didn't say anything he just nodded.

"What!?" she asked as her heart dropped, she looked back down at herself critically.

"Nothing! You're fine." He quickly responded sincerely before he reached back over and planted another kiss on her head. "You ready?"

"Yeah, we're already late so let's just go."

She quickly reached past him to grab her backpack off the floor behind his seat, she heard his small intake of breath as she brushed past him while he was still leaned towards her after his kiss to her hair.

She pulled back with her bag in hand and went to look up at him, but he was already getting out of the car.

Quil followed behind Claire into the hospital as she hurriedly made her way to the front desk.

"Hi, I'm Claire Young. I have an appointment with Dr. Montgomery to remove my stitches." She explained to the harried looking receptionist at the desk.

They were over ten minutes late and Claire was just praying that they hadn't given away her spot. If they had, there was no way that she could squeeze back in an appointment with Dr. Montgomery any time in the near future. She would just have to have her mom take her stitches out. If she was being honest she really preferred the steady hands of a surgeon to her mother's pediatrician's hands.

The receptionist was about to say something when they were interrupted,

"Claire!? Wow, look at you! You clean up nicely when you aren't covered in your own blood!"

Claire smiled as she turned to see the kind nurse that had helped her so much the night of her accident. He was wearing the same teal scrubs he had been wearing the last time Claire was there. He was only feet from her as he approached the desk while carrying a clipboard.

"Greg! Hi! It's so good to see you! I had no idea if you'd even be working today!" Claire enthusiastically greeted.

Claire reached up to give him a hug with her good arm as he leaned down to her while wrapping the clipboard around her.

"Yeah, I'm actually on Dr. Montgomery's service today so I can just take you right back." he told her as he pulled back while accidentally smacking the back of her head with the clipboard. "Op! Sorry!" he reached up and quickly touched the spot where he had hit her. "The last thing you need is more stitches!"

Claire laughed before she joked, "That's alright, I'm used to being hit by buses, remember?"

Greg chuckled in response before he said, "I hope not, though I certainly wouldn't mind having more patients like you. You handled that re-brake like a real champ. Speaking of which… how's the arm?" he reached over and touched her broken arm as he leaned in to look at her cast hidden in her sling, it still had the vintage Beatles sticker on it that Bennett had given her the day after the crash.

"Itchy!" she replied.

Greg laughed, "I'll bet. Hey nice sticker! How long did Dr. Clyde give you in the full cast?"

"Um… two and a half more weeks, then a partial cast for four more weeks, plus physical therapy…" she told him trying and failing to sound optimistic.

He chuckled at her tone and put his hand back on top of her cast as he said,

"Hang in there, Claire. You're definitely the toughest cheerleader I've ever met!"

"Hey! Cheerleading is a tough sport!" She quickly defended with pride.

Greg laughed again as Quil gave a fake cough obviously wanting his presence acknowledged.

"Oh sorry! Quil this is Greg, he was the nurse who took such great care of me after my accident. He was actually the first one to even talk to me, everyone else was just poking at me while cutting off my uniform and Greg actually treated me like a person." She introduced Greg as she turned toward Quil. She put her left hand on Greg's arm so she could give his arm a squeeze of appreciation as she spoke.

"Hey, how's it going?" Quil said with a small nod.

Greg just stared at him for a small second before he said, "Nice to meet you."

He immediately turned to Claire with a confused look on his face and without giving Quil a chance to respond, "No boyfriend? That kid was about to break down walls to get to you if he had to."

Claire immediately swallowed and looked down but tried to say as casually as she could, "Not today. Nobody thought it would be a good idea for him to come back to this hospital."

Greg laughed again as he said, "Smart move seeing as I'm pretty sure security has orders to tackle him on sight if he comes on the premises again. Come on, I'll take you back. I saved your appointment for you so you wouldn't have to wait another three weeks if you wanted to see Dr. Montgomery."

"Oh Greg, thank you so much! I really need to get these stitches out!" Claire told him appreciatively as they started to follow behind him down the hallway he must have come from. "Oh, thanks." she said to Quil as he took her bag to carry it for her.

Greg laughed, "Anxious to get a pretty face back, huh?"

"More like anxious to not look like Frankenstein anymore!" Claire laughed.

"Too bad it's not Halloween! Alright Quil, you can wait in the room here. Claire can you come with me? I just need to get some basic information before Dr. Montgomery sees you." Greg said as they got to a patient room.

Quil gave Claire a shrewd look before she nodded at him knowing that he would be anxious to leave her alone in a hospital.

"You go ahead, I'm fine. I'll be right there." She told him quietly as she reached over to give his arm a reassuring squeeze.

His only response was to nod his head while he pressed his lips together and took her backpack with him while he went to wait in the room. Claire was surprised by his reaction but didn't have time to analyze it before,

"Okay, Claire, I need to get your weight and height first." Greg told her as he steered her to a scale around the corner with his arm brushing her cast as he placed his hand on her back to gently guide her.

He quickly recorded her weight and height. Claire was surprised that she was now five seven. The last time she had measured she was almost five five but that was about eighteen months ago. Greg sat her in a chair and started to wrap a blood pressure cuff on her left arm as he pulled up her sleeve.

"So, no boyfriend anymore, huh?" he asked her sympathetically.

"How do you know that?" Claire asked him shocked.

"Well your reaction when I asked about him didn't exactly scream 'still in love', plus I saw that kid, there is no way he wouldn't have come with you to hold your hand as someone poked and pulled at your face." Greg explained while watching his hands work to secure the cuff on her arm.

"Yeah, we broke up this past weekend." Claire admitted. For some reason it wasn't nearly as embarrassing to admit this to Greg as it was to admit to Macy. Maybe because he was so much more sympathetic instead of just looking for the latest gossip.

"That's rough. High school break-ups are always the worst. Is that why you're so done up today? Trying to show him what he's missing?" he asked knowingly as he pushed the start button on the cuff.

Claire shook her head, "No, it wasn't for his sake. I actually had to tell everyone we broke up today, so that's why."

"Ah, and how did that go?" he asked sincerely as he crouched down in front of her to record what was written on the display of the cuff.

"Not great. I got RPCed for my outfit." She admitted surprising herself for willingly giving so much personal information. She decided it must be because she felt so bonded to Greg after the way he had taken care of her during such a traumatic event.

"You're kidding! That sucks! Well I think you look great Claire, don't let high school get to you too much. Trust me, life gets much better than high school!"

Claire laughed. "Thanks Greg. That's what I'm hoping for!

"No problem, Cheerleader. Alright, is there any reason your blood pressure would be high? I've taken it twice and it isn't where I'd like it to be." Greg asked her, getting back to business.

"Well…" Claire thought for a second before she said, "I haven't eaten anything today… and I've had a really stressful couple of weeks…"

"That would do it." Greg scrutinized her intensely while still crouched in front of her chair. "But is there a reason why you haven't eaten today, or do I need to be worried about you?"

Claire laughed at the insinuation before she said sincerely, "Trust me, I eat plenty! It just took me so long to do this" (she gestured to her face) "that I was late and forgot to grab breakfast. I actually missed lunch because I was still stuck in the dean's office… It definitely wasn't intentional."

Greg smiled at her before he said, "That's what I like to hear! If I sneak you something from the cafeteria will you eat it?"

He finally removed the pressure cuff as Claire said, "Yes! That would be fantastic, literally the best part of my day!"

"Alright, I'll find you something. Okay now I need to ask you some uncomfortable questions, alright?" he asked her as he pulled his clipboard back out.

Claire nodded and hesitantly said, "Okay."

"When was your last period?"

"Three weeks ago." She answered immediately.

"Alright. Is there any chance you might be pregnant?"

"Nope." She popped her P.

"Are you sexually active or have been in the last six months?"

"No, never."

Claire was surprised that she didn't feel more uncomfortable admitting all of this extremely personal information to a man as attractive as Greg, but he was good at his job and she truly felt that he had her best interest at heart.

"Are you on any form of birth-control?"

"No." she answered quickly.

"Are you on any prescription medication?"

"Not anymore, no."

"So, you stopped the Vicodin?" he asked as he looked up from his clipboard for the first time to make eye contact with her.

"I haven't taken one since Saturday." She told him honestly.

"Good. Flush any leftovers. Trust me, it doesn't do any good to have extra opiates laying around." He told her while maintaining the intense eye contact.

"Okay. I will." She said sincerely.

"Alright, I think that's all I need from you for now. You can go ahead and wait in your room with your…?" he trailed off a little suggestively.

Claire hesitated for just a second before she answered, "Uncle."

"Cool, well I'll be in there with Dr. Montgomery, and a snack for you, in just a couple of minutes." He assured her easily.

Claire took his hand he offered as help up from her chair before she said,

"'Kay thanks. Hey, Greg, wait just a sec!" she grabbed his arm before he could walk away as she sincerely said, "I never really got a chance to thank you for everything you did for me that night. It was one of the worst nights of my life and you're help really meant a lot to me so…." She blew out a breath as she teared up. "Thank you! Really, I don't know what I would have done without you."

"You're welcome, Claire. I'm really glad you turned out okay." He said sincerely as he gave her another quick hug. "Alright, I'll see you in a sec." he added as he turned and walked away.

Claire stood for a second by herself in the hall, taking a couple deep breaths to get her emotions under control before she saw Quil again.

She walked into her room a minute later to find Quil sitting on the patient table on top of the crinkly paper with his eyes closed and his fingers pressed into his forehead as he leaned forward onto his knees. Claire laughed quietly at seeing him in a bit of a dramatic position.

"Hi!" She said brightly but quietly, "Did you just get some bad news?"

He didn't move other than to reach his left hand out to her without looking up. She quickly crossed the small space to awkwardly reach her left hand across her and place it in his.

"Is it terminal?" She teased.

"I'm just tired." He said lifelessly.

"You're right. I shouldn't joke about terminal illness," she dropped her voice to a whisper, "especially here with people dying."

Quil was silent for moment before he dropped the hand still covering his face and looked at her.

"Well that was morbid." He said a little roughly.

"Sorry." Claire shrugged suddenly feeling a little defensive. "Just trying to be respectful of other people's pain."

Claire was surprised when Quil scoffed before he looked away from her. She quickly dropped his hand and turned slightly so she wasn't facing directly toward him but facing the door instead. What was with him? When had she ever been insensitive to the pain of people around her?

She took a deep breath realizing that her having not eaten all day on top of already having such a crappy day was probably a large contributing factor to her feeling so defensive right now. She turned back to face him as she asked as calmly as she could,

"Is something bothering you, Quil?"

"Nope, I just didn't realize I'd be walking into the middle of something today." He said quickly while staring up at the ceiling.

Claire was completely at a lost as to what he was talking about. Why he was acting like such a jerk? He wouldn't even look at her. She took another deep breath so she could speak calmly when she said in a slightly snippy tone,

"I'm sorry. Have I done something to offend you?"

She suddenly thought about her top and how he had been acting off ever since he had had to help her pin it together in the car. Was he upset with her over it? Or the fact that she had gone to school dressed in an outfit that had been construed as so sexually suggestive?

He blew out a large breath and said, "I just don't want to see this." while still looking up at the ceiling.

Claire was hurt that her ensemble mishap had so clearly offended him. He still wouldn't even look at her even with her shirt pinned together. She quickly looked back down at her top as if it could give her some answers about why today had gone just so horribly wrong. She suddenly felt incredibly defeated as she blew out a slightly shaky breath and went to go sit in one of the two chairs against the wall across the room from him.

"I shouldn't have brought you. I should've just asked Rachel to drive me." She said quietly. She reached her free hand up to pull her hair back at her hairline and noticed that she seemed to have the shakes. _Man, I really need to eat something_. She thought to herself.

"Well at least Rachel wouldn't have been in the way."

He said it so quietly she wasn't sure if he was speaking to himself or her.

Claire was feeling incredibly lost and said honestly, "I really don't know what you're talking about. How are you in the way?"

He was about to respond when the door next to Claire opened and Greg came in quickly shutting the door behind him. He looked expectantly at the patient table and immediately looked confused to find Quil on it. He looked around and quickly spotted Claire sitting next to where he was standing and as far from Quil as possible in the small room.

"There you are. Here I got this for you but eat it quickly. You're about to have an audience." Greg said quickly as he handed Claire a pudding cup with a spoon and a granola bar.

"Ah!" She gasped as she grabbed it. "Greg, you're the best! Thank you so much!"

He chuckled before he asked, "Need some help?"

Claire was trying to hold the pudding cup in her right hand around her cast that went around her thumb and covered her entire palm, so that she could peel the top awkwardly with her left hand.

"Please!" She said gratefully as she handed it back to him.

"Here." He said as he peeled the top off and handed it back to her before walking to the close top garbage can and pushed the lever with his foot so the lid would open as he dropped the top in.

Claire immediately started to devour the chocolate pudding. She was starving and had eaten the entire cup in three bites before she started scrapping the sides of the cup with the spoon.

"Whoa," Greg laughed, "you weren't kidding about knowing how to eat."

Claire shook her head as she said, "I'm starving!"

She put the empty cup and spoon in his outstretched hand before he quickly threw it away. She grabbed the granola bar off her lap and tried to open the wrapper before Greg came to sit by her saying, "Here, I got it.". He took it from her hand and opened it for her before giving it back.

"Thanks!" She said appreciatively before she took a bite. "Hey what did you mean I'm about to have an audience?"

"Oh, you'll see any second now. I forgot to ask you some question for your forms so bare with me for a second." He answered as he pulled his clipboard out from under his arm where he had tucked it.

Claire just nodded as she took another bite of her granola bar.

"Are you allergic to any medications?"

She nodded with her mouth full.

"Penicillin." Quil answered confidently speaking for the first time from where he had sat up on the table.

Greg looked at Claire for affirmation and she nodded in agreement before he wrote it down on the form.

"Have you been out of the country in the last eighteen months?" He asked reading off the form.

"No." Claire answered while suddenly feeling crazy thirsty. She was looking at the counter behind Quil to see if there were any cups there that she could fill from the sink.

As though he could read her mind, Greg reached into the pocket of his scrubs and pulled out a small 8-ounce water bottle and handed it to her.

"Thank you!" She said surprised.

She took it in her left hand and then held it steady as he opened the top for her before she drank about half of it in a single gulp.

"Have you had surgery or been put under anesthesia with in the last year?" He asked not missing a beat.

"No." She said as soon as she had swallowed.

"Have you ever had an elective surgery performed by Dr. Montgomery or otherwise?" He asked still looking at the board.

"No!" Claire laughed.

Greg chuckled as he said, "Yeah, that one isn't really applicable to you! Alright, well I think that's all the questions. Let's get you prepped for the doctors."

"Doctors?" Claire asked confused as she turned to look at Greg beside hers.

"I told you you were going to have an audience. Quil would you mind trading seats with the patient here?" Greg responded as he turned to Quil.

Quil just stood up silently before he put both of his hands in his back pockets. Claire noticed how his lips were pressed tightly together the way he only did when he was really irked about something. She wondered again what was bothering him as he came up to her and reached out a hand to help her out of her chair.

She didn't say anything as she accepted his hand and stood up. She was too preoccupied by her thoughts about why he was upset to thank him. She walked robotically to the table he had just vacated and sat down as Greg pulled a tray stand right next to her and started pulling instruments and equipment out of drawers and placing them on the tray.

Claire noticed that Quil followed her back to the table instead of sitting down on a chair against the wall. He was standing next to her on the side of the table opposite from Greg as he moved around efficiently prepping for Dr. Montgomery.

"Okay, Claire. Can you lean back for me, so I can prep your stitches?" Greg asked her as he pulled on a pair of gloves.

Claire just nodded as she put her legs up on the table and leaned back until she was staring at the ceiling. Greg leaned over her until he was less than a foot away from her face before he started to carefully pull away the strips on her forehead. She was surprised when she felt Quil's hand slip into hers lying on the table. She expected him to avoid physical contact while he was upset with her. She gave his hand an appreciative squeeze as Greg said.

"Okay, these look good! I think Dr. Montgomery was right! I don't think you'll have any scarring at all!"

He gave a chuckle at Claire's look of relief as she breathed out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. He had already uncovered the two spots on her forehead and was just doing her cheek. He removed the strips quickly doing a great job at not pulling on the stitches themselves before he took a large cotton swab, dipped it in antiseptic, and began rubbing it across her cheek.

"Does it hurt at all?" He asked her quietly.

Claire shrugged and said, "It's cold and it stings a little."

Greg paused for just a second and asked, "Any burning sensation?"

Claire shook her head as she looked over at him, "No."

The door opened just as Greg was finishing applying the antiseptic to her forehead. Dr. Montgomery came in followed by three other doctors in lab coats. Claire was suddenly uncomfortable with this many medical professionals being in the room at once. It reminded her too much of when she had been strapped to a board in the ER not knowing what had happened to Bennett with doctors above her poking at her. She felt her breathing accelerate as Quil squeezed her hand reminding her he was there, and she saw Greg lean over her to make eye contact and smile before he said,

"We just finished prepping the stitches for you Dr. Montgomery!"

It had reminded Claire of exactly the way he had leaned over her and told her she would be alright that night in the ER. She gave him a grateful smile before she looked back up at the ceiling and took a breath while squeezing Quil's hand. She kept reminding herself that she wasn't in the ER and that this wasn't the same at all.

"Hi, Claire. How are you doing today?" Dr. Montgomery asked her in a friendly voice.

 _Terrible._ Claire thought dramatically before she said, "Great. How are you Dr. Montgomery?"

She could see Quil's smirk above her as if he knew exactly what she had been thinking.

Dr Montgomery quickly introduced her to the three doctors with him. One was a fellow there at the hospital and the other two were med-students and they were all shadowing him for the day. Quil actually had to let go of Claire's hand and move back to the wall so that all of them could fit in around Claire to watch as Dr. Montgomery began.

Claire had had stitches removed by her mother twice before, so she had some familiarity with the experience and she was very impressed at how quick and smooth Dr. Montgomery was as he talked through what he was doing and his specific techniques with the other doctors while Greg handed him tools. It took less than five minutes of Claire feeling barely any pressure or pulling before Dr. Montgomery stood up and grabbed a mirror out of a drawer and handed it to Claire.

Claire was surprised at the intensity of her relief when she finally saw her face gash and stitch free. Greg and all four of the doctors laughed at her reaction as she blew out a huge relieved breath and smiled largely at her reflection. There were barely three incredibly slender pink lines each about an inch long on her face and she looked so normal with her still bright red lips and contoured makeup.

"Thank you!" Claire said as sincerely as she could to Dr. Montgomery.

"And like I promised there won't be any scarring! Apply this twice a day for the next few weeks and by the time you get your cast off there won't even be any evidence that anything ever happened to your face!" He told her as he handed her a few sample size tubes of medicated cream.

Claire laughed with relieve as she touched the smooth mark on her cheek while she looked down in the mirror she had to awkwardly hold in her right hand before handing it back to Greg. Tomorrow she would apply foundation, and no one would even be able to see it or the marks on her forehead.

The doctors quickly filed out at that point as Greg asked, "Feel good to have your face back?"

"Yes!" Claire said laughing again. She hadn't realized that she was so stressed to find out what was hidden under the grizzly stitches and bandages but was incredibly relieved with what she had found. It had been completely worth it to have Dr. Montgomery stitch her up.

"Well, Cheerleader, you're set to go now!" Greg said in a friendly tone as he offered her a hand to help her up off the table.

"We'll see you in a few weeks when you get that cast off!" He said cheerfully as she stood up.

She gave his forearm a squeeze where she was holding on to it as she said, "Thanks for everything, Greg! It was great to see you again!"

He gave a small chuckle and said, "You too, Claire! Nice to meet you Quil." before he turned and walked out the door.

Claire gave another small laugh as she felt how soft and smooth her face was. It was by far the happiest she had felt all day. She turned to Quil who was picking up her backpack off the floor.

"You ready to go?" He asked as he reached over and touched the back of her hair as he watched her grab the mirror off the counter to exam her incisions again.

She nodded while she smiled up at him hugely. He laughed at her reaction as she set it down and led the way out.


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Claire breathed in a large gulp of fresh air as Quil opened the door for her and they walked out the front doors of the hospital. It was always a relief to leave this place. It just held too much stress and bad memories for it to ever be an enjoyable occasion, though she truly appreciated all that Greg had done to make it a better experience for her each time she had been there.

It was pouring outside, and Claire had left her jacket at home in her rush to get out the door. They were still under the covered walk in front of the doors as Claire breathed in the smell of the rain, and let it soothe her soul. It seemed to add to the high that getting her stitches out had given to her.

She laughed as she looked at the curtain of downpour about four feet in front of her.

"What?" Quil chuckled while looking over at her. He was standing only inches from her right arm as she stared out at the rain in front of her.

"My shoes are going to get soaked!" she chuckled again as she looked down at her ballet flats.

Normally this would seem like a crappy situation but after such an awful day Claire was suddenly seeing the humor in it.

"You want me to carry you?" Quil offered doubtfully.

She could feel the huge smile on her face as she continued to watch the rain in front of her. She shook her head without taking her eyes from the water pooling on the pavement. She bent over as she pulled her legs up and quickly took her flats off, holding them in her left hand before she stood back up and directed her massive smile at Quil.

"You ready!?" she asked him excitedly.

He raised his right eyebrow as he cocked his head in surprise at her unexpected behavior before giving her a playful smile.

"Here!" He said as he put his right hand on her waist and moved close behind her. She could feel his shirt brushed against her long hair as he passed close by. He grabbed her shoes in his left hand while trailing his right around her back and reaching down to wrap his hand around hers.

Claire giggled when he said, "Ready….. Set…." They braced for a race even though they were holding hands "GO!".

They started to sprint out toward the Camaro. The rain was coming down even harder than it looked, splattering in huge drops everywhere it landed. Claire could feel her hair and shoulders getting soaked along with her jeans below the knees as they were splashed with the rain she was kicking up with her bare-feet as she ran. The Camaro was about 200 yards from the doors, but they had a direct path as they ran.

Claire shrieked with shocked surprise before she burst out in deep laughter when she slipped in an oily spot on the pavement and landed flat on her butt sending out a huge splash of water and getting her backside completely soaked in the process. She was laughing almost uncontrollably when Quil managed to still sound concerned as he laughed and yelled over the rain,

"Are you okay!?"

Claire just nodded as she continued cracking up. She wasn't even sure when the last time she had had this much fun was. Quil bent over as he put his hands under her arms and lifted her to her feet.

"That's quite a look!" he teased her as she turned around to him basically soaked from head to foot. He used his hand to brush the sopping strands of her hair that were pasted to her face out of the way. She just smiled up at him for a second feeling elated, before she used her left hand to shove him back as hard as she could and yelled,

"I'm so going to beat you!"

She took off for the car again with a hyper giggle.

She was sprinting, but she knew that even without his supernatural-wolf abilities his long legs could easily out-run her. She had only managed to get him to take a single step back from her with her shove and didn't have much of a head start so she was booking it as fast as she could, she was only about ten feet from the car when Quil caught up to her. She didn't even hear him behind her before his hands shot out of nowhere, grabbing her as he wrapped his right forearm all the way around her waist before lifting her off the ground and spinning her in the rain as she shrieked with hysterics at his unexpected attack.

He put his left hand on her side as he mercilessly tickled her waist while using his right forearm to keep her pinned against him. She was shrieking in what she could only describe as a fit of giggles while she leaned against his arm trying to escape his left hand that was the culprit behind her endless laughter. She could hear Quil chuckling in her ear behind her and the sound reminder her again of how much she had missed him.

She ended up leaning her weight over his forearm as she lifted her wet feet off the ground so that he would have to support all of her weight in just his right arm if he wanted to continue to pin her to him. All her body-weight in his single arm didn't seem to faze him at all as he continued to tickle her.

"Quil!" she shrieked out between giggles. She was laughing so hard she couldn't even catch her breath.

"I thought you said you _didn't_ want me to carry you to the car?" he laughed at her as he carried her weight and continued to tickle her relentlessly.

She didn't know if she had ever laughed as hard as she was laughing in that moment. For the first time in weeks she couldn't feel the pressure of her problems weighing heavy on her heart. It seemed ironic that (arguably) the worst day in the history of Claire's small world is what it would take for her to crack open and find the true joy of living in a simple moment in the pouring rain.

Quil finally stopped tickling her just as her core was starting to hurt from all of her cracking up and from leaning over Quil's arm. She put her feet back on the ground right next to Quil's, landing on the balls of her feet before coming slowly down to her heels while soaking up the feeling of the cold water against her skin.

She had to stop to catch her breath. She turned into Quil's strong chest where his soaked gray t-shirt was plastered to him. She just leaned into him wrapping her good arm around his back and pushed her broken right arm into his stomach as she held herself fast to him and continued to laugh occasionally while she tried to catch her breath.

He tightened his right arm that had never released her as he wrapped his left arm around her, placing his hand on her hair to he received her embrace. Claire giggled again as she placed her hand that was wrapped around his back into his longer hair and scratched as she joked, "Good boy!" into his chest.

Quil chuckled before he replied, "Am I your loyal companion?"

Claire smiled at his response before she said. "Something like that!"

She pulled back to look at him. She noticed the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, and his wet beard longer than she had ever seen it. It was turning into a real growth. She pulled her hand back from around his back and down around his waist to place her hand in his.

"Come on, let's get out of the rain! You're a mess!" she teased him.

" _I'm_ a mess?! Look at you!" he joked as he used their joint hands to lift a strand of her long, soaked hair off her sling.

She laughed as they ran the last few feet through the pouring rain. They dropped hands as they separated to go on opposite sides of the car before they quickly jumped in while Quil pushed the button to start the car in one single smooth move. He reached all the way across her chest with his long arm to grab her opened door and pull it closed so she wouldn't have to reach over awkwardly with her left arm then quickly cranked up the heat. Claire was already shaking with cold and had goosebumps covering her entire body.

Quil's shirt was wet sticking to all of his well-defined muscles and the bottom of his khaki dickies were splashed and blackened but Claire was completely soaked from her hair which continued to drown her, to her butt that had landed in the puddle, to her feet that had run barefoot.

Claire chuckled again as she griped, "So much for not getting my cast wet!"

Quil laughed as he stripped his soaking shirt off and threw it on the floor of the back seat with Claire's shoes and backpack.

" _Whoa_! Okaayy!" Claire teased.

He looked over at her confusion before she quoted with a chuckle, "'That's a lot of cleavage!'"

He laughed in surprised at her comment.

"You cold?" he asked as he put the car in drive.

"A little." she admitted as she wrapped her left arm around her wet shirt trying to find warmth.

Quil quickly turned the heat up higher.

"Thanks!" she sighed as she put her hand in her hairline pulling the wet locks from her face. "Man! I can't even remember the last time I laughed that hard! Definitely not since before the accident! When did my life become so serious? I used to laugh all the time!"

Quil just smiled as he reached over and put his hand on her thigh just above her knee on top of one of the rips in her jeans.

"Wow! You really are cold!" he said as he felt the cold temperature and goosebumps on her bare skin.

She just shrugged. "I'll dry. Besides it was totally worth it!"

He gave her leg a little squeeze as she leaned her wet hair back against the head rest and closed her eyes in contentment despite her freezing temperature. They drove all the way home like that; in contented silence as Claire slowly warmed up and Quil sat shirtless while probably overheating.

She wasn't paying attention as Quil pulled up to the shop. She hadn't given any thought to if she wanted him to take her home but as soon as they pulled up Claire felt grateful. She wanted to extend this period of peace before she had to go home and face the turmoil that was now her parent's relationship and try to give Jamie all of the love and attention he was missing from his distracted parents.

"Can we get some food? I'm starving." Claire asked as Quil parked the car.

It was raining almost as hard here as it had been in Treeport but fortunately they were only about ten feet from the side door.

"Yeah definitely! Chinese sound good?" he asked her enthusiastically as he picked up his phone from the console.

"Mmm, yes! But only if there are extra-" she started before Quil cut her off, "Extra pot-stickers!"

He winked at her as he hit a contact number on his phone and then quickly placed an order that Claire couldn't understand because he was only using numbers directly from the menu, it sounded something like,

"Yeah two number twelves, a number sixteen, a number four and a number seven…."

He seemed to list about ten menu items. Claire laughed while watching him. Quil _would_ have an entire Chinese menu memorized. He hung up quickly and Claire reached back to get her stuff but Quil grabbed her arm and said,

"Just leave it. I'll grab it later."

She nodded before she jumped out of the car and ran for the cover of the garage. He was right behind her as they ran through the door. Claire had loved every moment of getting soaked in the rain, but she was growing increasingly uncomfortable in her wet, cold clothes as they chaffed against her. Quil hadn't even grabbed his t-shirt but the bottom of his pants was almost dry.

He grabbed her hand that was now shaking with cold again as he led her quickly up the stairs to the apartment. Once inside continued to he hold onto her hand as he bent down and grabbed a towel out of a laundry basket. He rubbed it through his wet hair and over his rain-splattered chest as he walked to his dresser dragging her along with him.

"Let's find you some dry clothes before you become hypothermic!" he said as he opened up a drawer.

She laughed and said, "Quil, none of your clothes are going to fit me!"

He threw a dark-blue long-sleeve thermal shirt on the bed. Claire recognized it because he usually wore it once a year, on the coldest day of winter, without even a jacket. It was his entire winter wear.

"No, look what I found here the other day!" he reached down to his bottom drawer before he pulled something very pink out.

It was a pair of running shorts she used to wear for dance-team practices in seventh and eighth grade. They must have fallen out of her gym bag and gotten lost in Quil's apartment at some point.

"Where on earth did you find those!?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Under my bed!" he said honestly as he stood up and threw them next to the shirt. He reached over to her and carefully helped her lift the strap of her wet sling over her head and slid it off her arm before tossing it on the bed and turning to go into the kitchen as Claire started unbuttoning her wet shirt.

"You want something to drink?" he asked as he opened the fridge door and ducked behind it.

"Yeah, I'll have a beer." She said casually.

He froze for a second before he looked back from the fridge to give her a scathing look. Claire cracked up at his reaction.

"I'm kidding! You just seemed to have a lot to spare the other day is all!" she explained good-naturedly. He rolled his eyes at her antics as he grabbed a beer for himself before grabbing a Pepsi for her.

Claire had managed to pry all of the buttons free from the wet material of her shirt but when she got to the safety pin holding the top section together she couldn't seem to unpin it with just her awkward left hand.

"Crap. Quil, can you help me get this again? I can't undo it." She explained, walking forward into the kitchen.

She wasn't paying attention as she struggled with the pin but when she got to the kitchen she sensed Quil's tension and stopped to look up at him a few feet in front of her.

He was frozen with his hand still in the air holding his beer. He was staring down at her with a taken back look on his face. She followed his gaze and look down to see her shirt hanging wide open with a clear view of her 'sexy bra' and all of her stomach without her sling holding her arm in the way. Her shirt was only being held together by the safety pin at the top.

Claire saw the same intense look of wanting in his eyes that she had identified the day before. She swallowed nervously while seeing him standing in front of her half naked while he physically evaluated her for the first time in her entire life.

Somehow her head was completely clear, and she dropped the pin she was struggling with and lifted the fingers of her left hand in front of his face and snapped loudly before she said authoritatively,

"Hey! Eyes up top buddy!"

Quil suddenly looked up at her face in shock as soon as she had snapped him out of it. He seemed dazed and confused like he hadn't even heard her initial request.

"I need help with this pin… but then I think you had better wait downstairs while I change." She explained clearly while making sure to maintain eye contact with him and hold his gaze at eye level.

He just swallowed before he wordlessly nodded his head as he set his can on the counter. He took a deep breath and looked back down to where the pin was holding the shirt together. His hands were definitely shaking this time as they undid the pin before looking away again to hurriedly grab his beer before walking past her and out the door as fast as he could without actually running. He hadn't said a word during the entire quick exchange.

Claire shook her head at his back as he hurriedly left. She wasn't embarrassed by what had just happened, but they clearly needed to set some new boundaries they hadn't ever had to have before. He had _never_ responded to her in the way he just did, so physically and obviously effected by her lack of clothing.

She remembered how just four months ago she had thought that if he saw her in a lace push-up corset he would think she was playing dress up and now if she just simply changed her shirt in front of him, the same way she always had before, he would have _that_ intense of a reaction. She shook her head again thinking about how her life was changing and if this would affect Quil's view of her as not grown-up enough or if his problem was with her maturity and not her physical development.

Whichever it was she didn't think she needed to push up his 5-year timeline. She could barely even think of Bennett without crying. And getting _together_ with Quil while she was still in high school just seemed way too problematic. No, she decided they definitely needed more time before they would be in _that_ place. So, in the meantime…. boundaries, lots more boundaries.

It took her a few minutes to peel her wet shirt off her skin and then strip it away from her cast. Her bra was damp, so she decided to let it dry out on her as she stripped off her soaked jeans.

If getting them on had been difficult it was nothing compared to trying to peel them off wet and one handed. She had ended up on the bed lying horizontal as she squirmed her legs and pushed with her left hand to try to pry them away from her skin. Her panties were damp too, but it took so long to get her jeans all the way off that all her underwear was mostly dry by the time she had shed her outer layer of clothing.

She quickly pulled on the pink shorts. They were a lot shorter and tighter than she had remembered them being. She had always been lean but she was probably three inches taller than she had been the last time she had worn them. When she pulled Quil's shirt on over her and fed her cast through it the shirt came so far down that it completely covered the shorts, only showing about half an inch in the back of the bright pink material.

Claire shoved the long sleeve up over her cast and lifted her left arm to free her hand of the extra length. She would have to ask Quil to roll it for her, she thought as she took her wet clothes and threw them in the dryer before starting it. She pulled her wet hair out of her face wishing she had something to pull it up off her dry clothes with before it soaked them too but knowing even if she had something she probably couldn't use it with only one hand. She went out to the landing to tell Quil he could come back in now.

"Hey, do you want me to throw your shirt in the dryer with my wet clothes?" she called down to him where he was leaning over the hood of whatever car he was currently working on while still shirtless. He still had his beer can in one hand.

He turned to look up at her. He seemed shocked when he saw her in his shirt with her long legs hanging out from her seemingly invisible shorts. He didn't reply to her question and he looked frozen again. She looked down at herself to see the strap of her bra hanging out of her right side as the large collar hung loosely over her shoulder. She quickly pulled it to her neck to cover her shoulder and bra. The movement pulled the shirt up enough to reveal a small amount of pink shorts. She sighed before she asked sincerely,

"Is my being here a problem for you? Maybe, I should just go home…"

That seemed to bring him back to reality. He quickly shook his head like he was trying to clear it as he looked down to process her words before he quickly said,

"No! Claire, I'm sorry! I'm fine. I'll work on it, okay? You just keep catching me off guard is all." He said sincerely while he looked up at her face for the first time. "Really, please stay!"

He started to walk up the stairs as Claire bit her lip while feeling undecided about this completely unchartered territory of their relationship. Quil seemed to turn a little red as he watched her while making his way up the stairs to her.

She knew that his attraction to her wasn't his fault. He was literally predisposed to be as attracted to her as possible. That was how an imprintation worked. The only reason he'd never been before was her young age. That clearly wasn't enough of a deterrent for him anymore, and since they were _just_ getting back to a good place she didn't want this be the thing that brought something back between them again.

He was just getting to the top of the stairs when he stopped on the last step before the landing so that he was only a couple inches taller than she was (instead of the normal nine or ten inches) as she stood a few feet in front of him. He placed a steadying hand on the railing and suddenly closed his eyes as he bent his head down and said quietly but emphatically,

"You have _got_ to stop doing that!"

She just looked at him confused before she realized he couldn't see her with his eyes closed.

"Doing what!?" she clarified.

"Biting your lip!" he said exasperated while opening his eyes to look at her again.

"Why!?" she asked completely dumbfounded. It had always been one of her habits and it had never irritated him before.

"Because, it's sexy!" he said almost like an accusation while still looking directly across at her.

She stood there completely shocked for a full second before she made up her mind.

"I should just go, I'll just get my stuff."

She turned to go get her clothes out of the dryer when he stepped up on the landing and grabbed her left arm to stop her.

"Claire, wait! Please don't go!" he said softly while now looking down at her. "I'm sorry. All of this stuff between us" (he gestured back and forth from his chest to hers with the hand that still held his beer in it) "is new to me and I'm just still trying to adjust to these unexpected feelings is all. But I _CAN_ control myself. I just _barely_ got you back in my life and I don't want to have you not be comfortable around me, alright?" he had looked her strait in the eye and she couldn't doubt his sincerity.

She bit her lip again feeling even more confused and undecided, but when she saw his exasperated reaction to it immediately stopped. She blew out a large breath she had been holding. She was starting to feel a fire pulling her body towards his shirtless skin, the same as it had the day before, and it wasn't helping her to think clearly.

"Okay..." She agreed hesitantly while staring at the pleading look on his face, "But from here on out we need to have some new boundaries, alright?"

She felt completely in over her head. She had no idea how to deal with these feelings that were coming between her and Quil but was desperate to find a way to keep him in her life and feel as close and comfortable with him as she always had before.

He nodded instantly, "Boundaries don't seem like a bad idea."

She nodded before she said, "No more changing in front of each other."

He looked down quickly but nodded as he (ironically enough) bit his own lip.

"No more sleepovers. I shouldn't have asked you last night." She continued.

He didn't seem happy about that condition but didn't object as he bit his lip harder and nodded at her bare feet.

"You need to call or text before you come to see me. No more surprising me when I get out of the shower." She continued to list off.

She was completely making these conditions up as she went. She just listed anything that she could think of that would help push their intense attraction to each other away and she was desperately hoping she was on the right track.

"I haven't done that in months!" he said a little defensively while looking back up at her.

"Still, it wouldn't help this situation." She said as he looked back down to her bare feet obviously perturbed.

"And most importantly... no more trying to kiss me." she finished as he instantly snapped his head back up to look at her face in protest. It was the only condition she had thought of that she was absolutely certain about.

"I'm serious, Quil." She said sternly before he could argue. "I know it's not the same for you, but I can't handle the tease, alright?"

The look on his face said that he clearly didn't like that argument _at all_.

" _What!?_ " he said in a frustrated tone, " _I'm_ the tease!? And what do you mean it's not the same for me!?"

Claire shook her head feeling confused and a little frustrated. She didn't want to argue it, she just needed to know if he could live by it or not. She stood silently for a moment collecting her thoughts so that she could explain to him in a way that he would both understand and accept without fighting her on it.

She could feel his frustration from where she stood about a foot and a half away from him. She had closed her eyes when she shook her head and she didn't notice his quick approach until his hand released her arm and was suddenly on her waist as he stepped right up to her, getting dangerously close in her space.

She felt her heartbeat rise to a panicked level in response and immediately took a step back, but he followed her pinning her to the door that had swung shut behind her when she came out. The look on his face made it clear that he had no intention of following this rule she had decided to set for him. He was coming in fast, leaning his face into hers. She knew that if she didn't find a way to stop him immediately she wouldn't be able to stop him at all…. or herself from responding to him. She had already tasted his kiss on her lips and knew she would have no strength to push him away if he kissed her again.

"Quil!" She huffed out in frustrated. He barely stopped long enough to look annoyed at being told to stay away from her. He was getting _so_ close, and she quickly said, "Where do you plan to take this!?"

She looked up at him to see the confused look on his face, she had been staring at his throat in front of her up until then. He was still holding her close to him, pinned between the door and the heat radiating off the bare skin of his chest.

"Are you ready to try to make something more out of this… out of us?" she asked expectantly and slightly desperately as she looked up at his face only inches from hers, "Because I'm not! Can you honestly say you are!?"

Couldn't he see how desperately terrified she was of them screwing up what had always been the loving relationship between them and then never being able to get it back again?

She continued to look up at him expectantly as he blew out a breath and looked away from her, before dropping her waist and taking a step back.

"Okay!" he said after a moment, he sounded somehow both defensive and defeated, "I promise!"

Claire blew out a deep shaky breath. She was satisfied with the arrangement he had agreed to but unhappy with the conversation. It just didn't seem like what they _should_ be. At all. They shouldn't be standing here partially clothed, as her heart was broken over another man and his feelings for her in the moment entirely based on physical attraction that wasn't even coming from _him_. She felt like they had gotten completely off track somehow. She blew out another breath as her eyes pooled with tears.

A week ago, Quil wasn't in her life, which had hurt but she was loved and adored by Bennett who loved her truly and honestly for who she was. Now here she stood with Quil while Bennett was no longer in her life. Quil loved her, but he couldn't _not_ love her. He had never chosen her the way that Bennett had, and his desire for her right now was purely physical. She felt cheapened and cheated. Quil was supposed to be her soulmate. Not a meaningless rebound fling. How did they get so far from where they were supposed to be… _what_ they were supposed to be?

Her tears started to fall as she stood in front of him while crossing her left arm over her cast, holding herself protectively as she stared at the floor. He blew out another breath as he finally set the can in his hand on the railing and quietly came back to her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his shirtless chest. She didn't try to fight him, she just leaned into his embrace and quietly let the tears fall from her eyes desperate for the comfort that came from his contact. He held her while he seemed to be trying to get ahold of himself by taking deep breathes.

"I'm sorry, Claire!" he finally whispered at her. "You might have caught me off guard, but you deserve more respect, and from now on I'm going to give it to you. Okay?" he finished sincerely as he kissed her head in his trademark way. She just nodded and used the sleeve of his shirt she was wearing to wipe at her eyes.

She knew that he was sincerely sorry, she could feel it and she was determined to move forward with her life and rebuild her relationship with Quil back to what it had been. She didn't really have any other options anyways. She took a breath and a step back as she asked,

"Could you roll this sleeve up for me?"

She held out her left arm as he grabbed the sleeve and cuffed it three times before it came up to her wrist.

"Thanks…" she said quietly while still looking away.

She could feel Quil blow out an exasperated breath. She had never had such a difficult time understanding him before, but she couldn't figure out where he was coming from or what it was exactly that he was looking for from her.

"Come on, you still need to tell me why your day sucked so bad." She heard him say through her distraction.

She decided to leave this confusing moment behind them and just continue to move forward. She nodded as she swallowed trying to find her voice again. She stiffened a little when he seemed to reach for her waist again, but he was just reaching past her to grab the doorknob which he opened behind her and then waited for her to walk in.

She quickly realized she needed to shake herself out of her tension. She had always trusted Quil and he had promised to follow the boundaries she had specified so there was no reason to feel so guarded or to not trust herself to be alone with him.

He followed her inside after a moment. He shut the door and walked past her to throw himself back first on the bed. Claire laughed at his casual behavior, he was acting as if everything was incredibly normal. He patted the bed next to him and said,

"Claire, I'm not getting any older here… are you going to tell me about today?"

She laughed again feeling relieved to be with _her_ Quil again before following to stand right next to his legs and knees which were still hanging off the edge of the bed. She backed up until she could feel the bed pushing against her legs and then let herself fall back next to him, landing with a huff while trying to protect her broken arm.

"What the…?" She started as she reached underneath her with her left hand to pull out her wet sling she had landed on. She threw it on the floor without looking. She hadn't bothered to put it back on after she got dressed. She really wanted to take a break from it after a difficult day of it chaffing at her neck.

Her left shoulder was only about an inch from Quil's arm as they just laid there next to each other staring at the ceiling for a moment before he said expectantly,

"So….?"

She blew out an exasperated breath as she put her hand in her hairline pulling it back from her face.

"Honestly, I don't even know where to start..." she told him truthfully.

"Just start from the beginning." He suggested.

She nodded even while knowing that he wasn't looking at her and wouldn't see it.

She took a deep breath before she started by walking him through her process of getting ready with Rachel that morning and how she had picked out her clothes and why. She just went in order, explaining how she had been running late as they ran out to 'the new car!' and about when Rachel had explained about her bra being seen through her shirt. She skipped over the part where Jamie had told them what Quil had said about Claire not being grown-up, she wasn't sure how he would respond to that and didn't really want to find out. She told him about walking down the hall and about Tony Fitz's comment and how she had hidden in her locker and been late to class. She even told him about how much it had hurt to walk in to the same class the same way exactly a week later and not have Bennett there to rescue her from all of the unwanted attention, to see his empty chair next to her and know it would never be the same between the two of them again.

Claire was surprised by how once she had started telling Quil the details she couldn't seem to stop, even to edit herself. Other than Jamie's comment and her conversation with Rachel about their kiss, she didn't hide anything. She just laid it all out for Quil to see. She told him about Macy's assumption that Bennett had dumped her. About the nasty 'Scarlet Letter' nickname. About how gossip was spreading rapidly that she was dressing to get Bennett's attention in a fruitless attempt to try to win him back. She talked about how creepy and infuriating the Dean had been as she had to sit across from him in his small office while he lectured her about her own intentions. She was just describing the details of how she had stripped her shirt to flash her bra in front of the Dean just to spite him, when there was a sharp knock on the door.

Claire jumped about three inches off the bed, completely startled. She had been entirely engrossed in the details of her story. Quil hadn't even spoken in about fifteen minutes. They had just laid there on the bed as Claire spoke and Quil listened. His only response had been to reach over and grab Claire's hand in his at one point near the beginning of her story. He had been holding it without rubbing her knuckles with his thumb the way he usually did. He was completely still as he patiently laid next to Claire listening to her mortifying day.

He chuckled at her startled reaction as he sat up and let go of her hand before he said, "It's just the food we ordered."

He stood up and reached into his pocket for his wallet as Claire sat up and scooted back a little before she wrapped her long legs under herself, kneeling on the bed waiting for Quil to come back. Quil opened the door to reveal a guy in his approximate early twenties with a box containing all the Chinese food that Quil had ordered before they had gotten out of the car.

"Hey, Kyle." Quil greeted him, obviously on a first name basis with the delivery guy. "I didn't think you worked on Tuesdays."

"Hey, Quil," Kyle responded while looking straight past him to stare at Claire on Quil's bed. "Selena called in sick, so they asked me to cover." He explained before he went on without giving Quil a chance to respond. "Damn, Quil!"

Quil had been pulling cash out of his wallet but looked up at Kyle's remark to see him looking straight past him to stare at Claire kneeling on his bed seemingly only wearing his blue-thermal shirt. Claire blushed when she made eye-contact with Quil who still wasn't wearing a shirt while Kyle stood behind him on the other side of the doorway obviously checking her out.

"Not alone again tonight, huh? I mean a Friday girl and a Tuesday girl?" Kyle stage whispered to Quil not quietly enough for Claire to not hear. He sounded impressed. "I think this one is hotter than Friday girl though if we're being honest…"

Claire could only see Quil's back as he turned around to Kyle while stepping in front of him to block his view of Claire on the bed. Quil was at least 6 or 7 inches taller than him and blocked his entire view easily before he pushed the cash into his chest as he grabbed the box from his hands and said calmly,

"Yeah, Kyle, I think it's time we reconsidered the nature of our business relationship."

"Wait…What?" he asked confused.

"Your fired." Quil said simply.

Kyle didn't seem fazed at all as he said, "Okay, but do you think you could still give me your work out tips and you have _got_ to tell me your moves for how you pick up such _hot_ girls!" he had put an emphasis on the 't' in the word _hot._

Quil had shut the door in his face before he had even finished speaking. He turned back around to Claire as he blew out a breath and said,

"Alright, Tuesday Girl, we've got food now."

Claire just rolled her eyes at him but then smiled.

"So, if I'm Tuesday Girl, that would make Friday Girl…. Leah?" she asked not sure what she wanted the answer to be.

"It'd seem that way." Quil answered honestly as he climbed back to his spot next to her on the bed taking the box of food with him.

"How many times did she come over?" Claire asked while trying her best to not sound like she was accusing him of anything.

"Zero." He said emphatically while stopping to look up and make eye contact with her. "Friday was the first time I had seen her in months."

Claire just nodded as she looked down and grabbed a container of food out of the box as an excuse to look away and be doing something instead of picturing Quil on top of Leah on _this_ bed… _again_. She opened it to see a large order of Lo Mein as Quil said,

"So, speaking of Leah…" he faded away as Claire immediately looked back up at him.

"What about Leah?" she asked skeptically.

"She made me swear that I would talk to you…" he said while pulling chopsticks out of the box and not quite meeting her eye.

"Talk to me about what?" she asked warily, she didn't like the direction this was going.

Quil blew out a breath and looked back up at her before he said, "She wants to come see you. To come apologize and explain."

Claire just stared at him for a second processing the request before she scoffed and said coldly, "Yeah well… Leah wants A _LOT_ of things she can't have."

She had expected Quil to blush or look embarrassed as she looked pointedly at him but to her surprise he smiled at her reaction before he said,

"She feels really bad. She wants to make things right. Maybe you should hear her out. You were always close to her before... I think you should give her a chance to fix things."

Claire couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had just barely begun to forgive Quil and hadn't even gotten close to the forgotten part. How much was he willing to ask of her? Did he just expect her to sweep it under the rug and act like it never happened or did he simply expect her to step aside and make room for Leah as the number one spot in his life? _No, that's not fair._ She reminded herself as she thought about how Quil had made his position and his motivation very clear already. She just couldn't seem to help her reactions when it came to thinking about Leah. If she was being honest with herself there was a very real part of her that was deeply afraid that Leah wanted to be with Quil.

"Why are you pushing me on this!?" she asked frustrated and defensive, "I just barely forgave _YOU_ for what happened between you two. Why are you defending _her_ now!?" she blew out a breath as she felt the box of Lo Mein shaking in her hand.

"Whoa, okay! I'm not defending her… or even me for that matter… It was incredibly stupid, and she regrets it as much as I do, but as long as she and I are both in the pack then she is going to be a part of our life. That's all I was trying to say." He answered quickly as he stood up to grab Claire a fork out of the drawer after she had struggled to put a pair of chopsticks in her left hand.

She breathed out a breath trying to think calmly about Leah and resist her natural urge to just hate her and avoid her as much as possible for the rest of her life. Quil wouldn't be a wolf forever. When he quit phasing maybe they could just move away and never have to see her again…

Claire's hand was shaking as she threw the chopsticks back down in the box and took the fork from him.

"Look, I just can't deal with her right now, alright!?" she said still more defensively than she had intended. She couldn't seem to help it. Every time she thought about Leah she couldn't seem to get past the image of the way her fingers had been running over Quil's chest like they were claiming him from the last time that Claire had seen her. "The dust hasn't even settled yet. I just need some time before I'm expected to be her best friend again, okay!?"

"Okay…." He said seeming to back off as he started to attack his food with his chopsticks. It was quiet for a moment as Claire forced herself to calm down and then began to eat too before he asked casually,

"So… how much time do you think you'll need?"

"What the crap, Quil!?" Claire asked completely exasperated. He had already pushed her more than she was comfortable with today and she couldn't figure out why he would want to push _this_.

"It's just… there is going to be a pack bonfire next Friday…" he explained sounding excited.

Claire immediately hesitated. It had been almost a year since she had been to a pack gathering and she would normally love to go but….

"What!?" she said emphatically, "No! Just go without me this time!"

"Claire…." He said enticingly as he put his carton back in the box and started crawling toward her on the bed.

"No!" she said quietly as she refused to meet the eye contact he was trying to make with her as he kept coming toward her.

She knew that if she gave in to look at and listen to him for even a second, he would talk her into it working around all of her issues and getting exactly what he wanted. He always had the ability to do it, but he rarely did. He usually just wanted to do whatever made her the happiest, but occasionally when he really wanted something he would pull out his old skills to work her over and this was clearly one of those occasions.

"No, Quil!" she whispered again as she tried unsuccessfully not to smile as he reached his hands out slowly to put them on her waist and tried to bend down and around to make her meet his eyes as she continued to refuse to look up at him. "No! I'm not going to that! No way!"

"Claire…" he said her name again as he slowly began tickling her on both sides of her waist.

She started trying to squirm away from him and his ticklish hands as she said, "No! That's such a terrible idea! Just go by yourself!"

"I went by myself to the annual bonfire in December, remember?" he reasoned laying the guilt on thick for leaving him alone when she had pushed him away while putting one of his hands under her chin and trying to force her to look up at him.

"Quil!" she started to whine softly as he finally succeeded in forcing her to look at him, she could feel herself losing ground. She could never resist giving Quil something when he actually cared enough about it to ask her for it.

"Come on…" he said enticingly, "You've always loved the wolf bonfires! It'll be fun!" he said trying to coax her into it by using his hand on her waist to tickle her while still holding her chin in his hand and forcing her to keep looking in his big dark eyes that were silently winning this battle against her.

"It will not!" she said immediately, "It'll be awful!" She barely got it out before she shrieked with laughter as he found her sweet spot and tickled her as hard as he could.

"Claire…." He said continuing to entice her with her name as he tickled her.

"Quil!" she argued back between giggles. "It's such a bad idea! A disaster waiting to happen!"

He stopped tickling her for a minute,

"How could it be a bad idea?" he asked with a faux-innocence she didn't buy for a second.

"Quil! Just forget Leah for a second! What about Bennett!? It'll be his first pack gathering and the last thing he needs is for me to be there rubbed in his face! Besides talk about awkward!" she got out as quick as she could before he could start tickling her again. His eyes were refusing to relent in their continuous silent begging.

"Claire…" he said enticingly again. "He can handle it... He's a big boy. Besides it'll be good for him to see us together, it'll help him understand the nature of our relationship." He argued while still probing her relentlessly with his eyes.

She finally closed her eyes and shook her head trying to shake his hand off her chin and block out his eyes before she caved just to make him stop.

"Quil!" she chided. "It's not a good…. I don't want…. Why do I have ….. No! Don't make me!" she couldn't get out a clear thought.

"Claire…" He just kept saying her name in that enticing way he always did until she broke down.

"Quil!" she whined desperately. He wasn't even tickling her anymore. He was just kneeling in front of her with his hand resting softly on her waist holding her while his other hand still cupped her chin to make her look at him even though her eyes were still closed. She could feel how badly he wanted this, like waves pulsating off of him along with the heat radiating from his skin.

"Claire…" he said again unrelentingly.

"Quil!" she whined again feeling herself losing. He was so close to breaking her. She couldn't even remember all of the reasons to not go. She couldn't see past his own wants anymore, not when he truly wanted something and forced his own feelings on her like this. She couldn't ignore them. She felt them too. It reminded her of what Emily had said about being uncomfortable when the imprintation called to her.

"Claire...?" he said again but this time it seemed to have the smallest hint of a question before he softly placed his forehead against hers, intensifying the transfer of his simple desires with the increase of physical contact. He had let go of her face and put his hand back on the other side of her waist. "Please?" he asked simply.

She was too overcome with his feelings sweeping over her to fight him anymore.

"Fine!" she said exasperated and knowing she would definitely regret agreeing to this.

"Yeah!?" he asked excitedly as she felt his feelings sweeping over her change to sudden excitement, replacing his feelings of begging from a second before. "You'll go with me!?"

"Yes! I'll go with you! Just stop pushing your emotions on me!" she said quickly while trying to pull back from his physical contact.

He laughed knowing exactly what he was doing to her. He pulled back while letting her go. He was immediately interested in his food again now that he had won his battle.

She blew out a breath as she moved back to the spot across from him in front of the food.

"You sure ask a lot of your Tuesday Girl." She said as she picked up the carton of pot-stickers and stuck it between her thigh and calf muscle where she could hold it upright sitting crossed legged before sticking her bare hand into it and attacking her favorite dumplings. She needed some serious comfort food after that humiliating loss. He had won so easily, and she had a much better case than he did.

"Don't call yourself that." He insisted, obviously upset about the interaction with the delivery guy.

"It's fine, Quil. People make assumptions. I would know! Especially after today... Besides, look at us." She said while gesturing to him still half naked before gesturing to herself with her messy almost dry hair and his too big shirt covering everything expect her legs and the skin that the large collar exposed at her shoulders. If she was being honest they looked a lot like they had just gotten out of a shower that they had taken together before ordering copious amounts of food after working up an appetite. "I'd have probably assumed the same thing if I saw us."

Quil just shook his head as he blew out a breath and tried to the change subject, "So, was this stupid dean the reason you didn't eat anything all day?"

"Yeah, well I was stuck in his office during…. Wait a minute. How did you know that I didn't eat today? I didn't tell you that." She said thinking back.

Quil quickly looked down suddenly interested in the Lo Mein she had discarded during his attack and grabbing it from next to her leg.

"Wait, were you listening in to my conversation with Greg!?" she asked realizing that he was the only one she had told that to.

Quil continued to be silent as he kept his eyes down stirring the Lo Mein with his chopsticks.

"Quil! That's a complete invasion of my privacy!" she said more shocked than angry.

He finally looked back up to her. "I'm sorry! You were just so flirty with him! Besides it's not all my fault, I just hear things! So, maybe I didn't try to not follow your sounds this time…" he defended quickly.

She was shaking her head knowing that she should be angrier than she actually was.

"Flirty!?" she asked more surprised with this than anything else. "How was I flirty with Greg!?"

"Oh, please!" he breathed out obviously frustrated. "You two were all over each other! I haven't seen that much casual arm touching since eighth grade!"

Claire just shook her head, knowing that he was reading way more into this than was there. But Quil always did that when he was protective of her. She rolled her eyes at him before she said,

"He's my nurse, Quil. I'm his patient. We would never flirt with each other."

"Okay!" he said skeptically. It was clear from his tone he didn't believe that. "Yeah, I saw him, Claire. Even if you want to claim that you weren't trying to flirt with him, he was definitely flirting with you!"

"What do you mean 'trying to flirt with him'? I wasn't flirting with him at all!" she said feeling defensive now.

He just gave her a skeptical look. His behavior toward her at the hospital was starting to make sense now.

"I wasn't flirting with Greg! I won't be flirting with _anyone_ for a long while now. And Greg wasn't flirting with me." She said sincerely while wondering how Quil had gotten so far off base.

"He was flirting with you, Claire! You think he is really that nice to all his patients?! Please, that whole looking at your cast thing? Yeah, he was trying to look down your shirt! And that whole casually feeling out the details of all your relationships like he cares about your feelings? He's just trying to see how desperate you are." Quil said sounding clearly frustrated.

Claire was surprised both by his reaction and by his interpretation to what he had seen and heard. She was suddenly frustrated that he was making her feel defensive of her interactions.

"Don't." she said quietly, "Don't do that. You're taking the things that Greg did for me and twisting them into some perverted ulterior motive."

She looked away from him. She could feel his frustration that she refused to see Greg through the lens that he had created for him, the same way she had felt his desire for her to go with him to the bonfire a moment before.

"You weren't there, Quil! I know it wasn't your fault, but you weren't there! That night was awful! Probably the worst night of my life, and Greg was one of the people who helped me. And he went above and beyond for me! Besides he had every opportunity to see me naked if he wanted to but instead he went out of his way to make me feel comfortable and treated me with the utmost respect. I owe him. And I'm truly grateful for the way he treated me so if you want to twist the interactions I have with him in your mind than that's your prerogative but don't try to force it on me too." She chided him feeling upset that he was twisting things just because Greg was a man. Claire was fairly certain Quil wouldn't have had any problems with their interactions if Greg had been a female nurse.

He seemed more annoyed than ever but like he didn't want to upset her as he stuck his chopsticks right into the Lo Mein carton and but it back in the box. Quil stopping eating could never be a good sign.

"Fine. If you don't want to see the truth about how guys respond to you then I won't try to enlighten you." He huffed while looking away from her.

"Oh, please." She scoffed at his dramatics. "Not every guy is genetically predisposed to respond to me the same way that you are."

"Wait. What?" he asked completely sidetracked.

"Besides I'm pretty sure that Greg is gay." She continued wanting to end the argument. "So, this whole jealous of my attention, protective freak-out is totally unnecessary."

He just put his face in his hands as he shook his head exasperated and he said, "Oh, Claire!" like there was no arguing with her.

"What?" she laughed at this reaction.

"Okay, first off, Greg is definitely _not_ gay. If he told you that he was lying to get your guard down." He said, looking back up at her expectantly.

"He didn't tell me that. It was just something I picked up on while I was around him. Besides how can you know for sure he's not?" she told him honestly.

" _Because_ a gay guy would check _me_ out, not try to look down your shirt and stare at your ass as we walked out." He answered confidently.

"Oh, he did not!" she laughed good-naturedly at Quil.

"He did! Trust me, Claire. I have checked enough girls out to recognize it when another dude does it!" he assured her.

She was laughing at him and his reactions now, "Well _that_ makes me feel _so_ much better about everything!"

He started laughing too.

"How do you get so mixed up in this head of yours!?" he asked as he put both of his hands around her ears and gently shook her head a little.

"What are you talking about?" she asked sincerely.

"Well obviously you're way off-track about why Greg is so nice to you, but clearly you're delusional if you think that I'm the only guy who is attracted to you or that the reason I am is because I'm genetically supposed to be."

She blushed a little at his flippant remark about being attracted to her and bit down on her lip again before remembering her had asked her not too and stopped.

She completely surprised herself when she heard herself ask him,

"Well then, why are you attracted to me?"

She had meant to say, 'all of a sudden' and ask about his change of heart but she couldn't seem to stop herself from asking like they were two normal people and not a completely unique pair that had been together since she was a toddler.

He finally dropped her head and shrugged casually while he said unashamed,

"Because you're hella hot." like it was obvious.

She smiled, pleased at his unexpected response before she put her fingers on his lips. He looked up at her, surprised by her touch.

"Nice words only, please." She gently chastised him for his cursing.

He smiled at her before he teased, "Yes, dear." under her fingers. She smiled back at him as she dropped her fingers and they both went back to the food.

"So, finish telling me about your hellish- sorry- your sucky day." He told her before he took a huge bite shoving at least three Crab Rangoons in his mouth.

She smiled as she shoved another pot-sticker in her own mouth. "Um… Where did I leave off?" she asked.

"You were wasting your incredibly sexy bra on the dean." He summarized for her as he opened the next carton.

She laughed at his summary before she went on to tell him about her RPC and then the rest of her day at school.

 ***Author's Note***

 **Thank y'all so much for reading! I feel like getting to put out fifteen chapters is a milestone (especially considering that people are still reading it!)! It means so much to me to have the chance to share something that I have created like this and I really appreciate all of the love and support that I have received so far! So, I'm sure y'all are tired of hearing from me by now but I have just had so many positive reviews and I needed to take a second and express my appreciation for that.**

 **When it comes to the internet I am definitely more of an observer than a participant. When I see something I like, I'll think** _ **oh that's cool**_ _._ **but I never take the time to actually respond or praise whoever put it out there. I'm only rambling on about this because I want to explain that having some of you actually take the time and effort to write positive reviews for me chapter after chapter truly warms my heart! I get SO excited and usually tear up a bit as I jump up and down excitedly while yelling at my hubby that I got another positive review, at which point he says something along the lines of** _ **'Great job, Honey! I'm so proud of you!**_ **(I know he's such a sweetheart and ridiculously easily impressed!) Any who…. I know one day I will probably get a troll review that hurts, and that's okay. I don't expect everyone to like it. But in the meantime, I wanted to thank every single one of you that has read to this point and made my silly fanfic what I would consider to be a great success! (I know my standards are low, but seriously people this is way more successful than I'd have ever expected!) Thank you for allowing me to spread something that I have created to people and countries all over the world that I** _ **never**_ **would have been able to connect with before! To the generous, kind-heart souls continuing to leave such flattering reviews, I thank you from the bottom of my heart 3! You are seriously the reason that after taking six months to write this beast of a book I now work my booty off every day to revise and edit another chapter to put out!**

 **Okay I know this is getting crazy self-indulgent and rambly… I clearly take myself way too seriously. I'll work on it, I promise!** **I seriously love all y'all!**

 **Xoxo**

 **-Jess**


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

 **Quil:**

Quil sighed in exasperation as Claire finished telling him about how she had ended up just throwing the PE shirt from the dean's office in the garbage at the end of her hellish day. It was taking a fairly significant amount of his self-control not to reveal his own anger and frustration at this middle-aged dean who was verbally and sexually harassing a sixteen-year-old high school student, but Quil knew that by expressing his true thoughts he would only make Claire more upset and she had had enough to deal with already today, he would never do anything to add to her burden at this point.

The box of Chinese food lay between them with about ninety percent of the food consumed (mostly by Quil) they had finished eating about twenty minutes before and hadn't moved while Claire had talked. She had at one point moved to the head of the bed to open the window a few inches, before she had come back to sit across from Quil while continuing to speak the whole time. He knew that she only wanted to hear the sound of the rain and smell it while it pounded outside. She had continued on with her story without explanation, and Quil suddenly understood why she had seemed so discouraged when she had gotten in the car when he had picked her up from school.

At first, he had been completely shocked by her rather sensual appearance. She looked like a heart stopper in her tight jeans with the large patches of skin showing through the rips and her soft white t-shirt with the low neck-line and that bra! That bra that you could see in almost perfect detail through her shirt, she had described it as her 'sexy bra' and that definitely seemed to be the most apt description of it. Her red lip stick and makeup had made her look really intense and definitely added to the sexy effect she had going for her. Initially he had been too blown away by his own reaction to her to even contemplate why she would be dressed like that, when he finally stopped to evaluate her shlumped all the way down in the passenger seat of his car with her hair falling all the way forward onto her face he suddenly picked up on her clearly upset demeanor.

It wasn't until the drive to Treeport while she had explained her reasoning had it become clear to Quil that she hadn't _intentionally_ achieved a level of sexiness that any guy within fifty yards of her couldn't help but respond to. She was actually going for a quiet confidence but with Claire, it had just turned into incredibly sexy incredibly quickly. Quil was just relieved that it hadn't been done on purpose for the benefit of someone at school… or worse for _his_ benefit.

No. It would have been worse it if had been done for someone else's sake, he figured once he stopped to think about it. He was already having enough of a hard time with Bennett, it would have been more than Quil could handle to have any other guy thrown in the mix competing for Claire's affections as well. But if she had dressed for his sake he knew without a doubt that he would have been goner.

There was no way that he would have won even a twenty second battle with his self-control if Claire had looked like _that_ for _him_. He was having enough of a hard time not immediately pulling her straight to him and kissing on those bright red lips and that hadn't even been _why_ she had done it. He managed to pull himself together pretty decently though. Claire was clearly struggling after school and needed his support (not him staring at her speechless as he aptly appreciated all of her soft subtle curves that her clothes where only barely keeping hidden). He had taken her home to change… but she had come out in a shirt only marginally less sexy than the sheer white t-shirt she had begun with.

She might have not been intending to seduce but that was definitely what she seemed to be achieving as she got in the car and quickly buttoned her shirt before she openly invited him to look directly at the low-cut neckline when she aptly pointed out that it was a cleavage top. Somehow while keeping his eyes on the road he had managed to distract himself from her seductive appearance long enough to actually talk with her. She had explained why she had picked her bra (like she somehow thought that she wouldn't be a spectacle wearing anything as sexy as those jeans with that bra). This was the point where Quil had started to realize how unclearly she saw her own beauty.

When he had first tried to explain to her how effortlessly beautiful she was, and she had become quiet and distant for a moment Quil had immediately stressed that after he had tried to kiss her no less than three times the night before she was too freaked out to respond. But she came back to him after a second and continued to express to him how she just didn't appreciate what she was. He had even gone so far as to confess to her the inner thoughts and feelings of the members of his pack and the reactions that they had ALL had to her and she completely disregarded him. He just couldn't get through to her and make her understand her own level of attraction. She even thought that he was only attracted to her because the imprintation made him biased towards her as if her effect on him had nothing to do with just how amazingly attractive in every way she truly was.

He was starting to feel pretty pissed by it all but when she had squeezed his hand and expressed how his love for her had been what had always given her her quiet sense of confidence he felt the frustration deflate with in him. He couldn't help it; he just loved her so much. He always had.

 _This girl!_ He thought to himself about how she just always knew _exactly_ what he needed. It calmed him down immensely. He quickly kissed her head with gratitude and then felt the comfort of her head against his cheek as he took a calming breath before he had looked down as he started to pull back and seen straight down her shirt and suddenly understood exactly what she had meant about it being a cleavage shirt. He had been completely frozen for a split second with his only cohesive thought being, _Damn, that bra IS sexy!_ before the moment caught up with him and he had to immediately pull back before he could react to it again. There was no way he could let her go anywhere anyone (but him) could see the view he had just gotten of her. The wolf in him would probably literally snap someone's neck just for looking.

He quickly found the tiny pin he had taken off a shirt tag last week and gave it to her but there was obviously no way she could pin it by herself without using her broken arm to do it. She needed him, she needed help, and that was what he had to tell himself at least three times before he could trust himself to reach down the front of her shirt and touch nothing but her top.

He was actually impressed with his own self-control when he managed to reach down the front of her low-cut top and not brush against the soft smooth skin his hand was so close to pressing against… but if he had done that there was no way his hand wouldn't have followed that smooth skin all the way down to feel the soft lace on the outside of her bra and that was just not a thought he could afford to entertain.

She asked him if she looked presentable enough and he had tried to force his own attraction aside to look at her critically, but the problem was that she just truly and unbiasedly looked incredibly sexy, even with the pin holding the top together so that the wide neck was now only hinting at the sexy bra and cleavage underneath. She looked so sexy in fact, that the man in him (instead of the wolf for once) didn't want anyone else to see her. He wanted to lock her up and hide her away were he could enjoy her for himself and no one else.

He had to actually shake his head to shake the thoughts away. She assumed his reaction was because she looked inappropriate somehow. He did an okay job of convincing her that she looked just fine but then she had started to reach in the back for her bag and she was suddenly assaulting his senses with that smell that just seemed to radiate off of her as she leaned in close to him and he got a more subtly hinted view of the cleavage he had already seen. He would have thought that since he had already _just_ seen the cleavage underneath it wouldn't affect him the same way… but he would have been wrong. He took a deep breath and jumped out of the car before he could no longer resist the urge to touch her.

Quil couldn't focus much on what was happening around him as they walked across the parking lot since he was literally so distracted by trying to control his thoughts of Claire and not dwell on the memories of her cleavage barely contained in the dark sexy bra (both through her sheer white shirt and the shot down the black one she was currently wearing) that kept popping up uninvited into his brain. He did come to a complete awareness of what was happening around him as soon as _Greg_ came up. The first thing out of his mouth was an obnoxious comment on how good she looked. Up until that moment Quil had had no idea that a _Greg_ had even existed. He wasn't happy about it though.

It came as no surprise to him to see Greg's obvious interest and attraction to Claire. He was giving her his completely undivided attention to the point of not even noticing Quil standing less than two feet from her. Due to his sheer size Quil was not used to going unnoticed. Especially by guys checking Claire out. It usually never happened once a guy caught a glimpse of Quil standing next to her. But this nurse seemed to feel completely undeterred by both the fact that he obviously knew that Claire had a boyfriend or by Quil's own intimidating presence next to her.

The thing Quil really couldn't understand was _Claire's_ reaction to him. Greg was all over her both with his eyes and his hands constantly casually touching Claire in some way, he probably would have shoved the stupid nurse off of her if it weren't for the fact that she seemed to be reciprocating all of his touches with her own. She didn't even remember Quil being there until he had to remind them both of his presence and then she had even held onto Greg's arm as she turned and introduced him to Quil. Greg had barely even acknowledged him and seemed to only notice that Claire had brought him instead of her boyfriend and instantly began probing her about her relationship status.

By the time Quil had been dumped in the exam room so that _the nurse_ could be left undisturbed to feel Claire out (both with his questions and with his eyes, not that Quil's presence had held him back at all before), Quil wanted to snap something in half. He had seen the way he had obviously tried to get a glimpse of the same view down Claire's shirt that was still popping into Quil's mind as he faked an interest in looking at Claire's cast in her sling. _Really?_ Quil thought skeptically, _It's a plain white cast, Dude…. what is there for you to be looking at?_ Except that Quil knew _exactly_ what there was for him to be looking at.

Quil managed to hold back from actually breaking something (barely) as he sat down and didn't even try to _not_ listen to their continued interaction out of his eye line.

 _This guy is so ridiculously obvious, how is Claire falling for this?_ He thought as he could hear what he could only assume was Greg's hand brushing against the material on the back of Claire's shirt as he helped her on the scale and then helped her stand against a wall to measure her. He heard their whole conversation as Claire explained about her breakup and Greg was _way_ too understanding and interested in the daily dramas of a high school aged girl than any standard twenty-five-year-old guy without an ulterior motive would ever really be. Claire was completely buying into it though. She sounded so appreciative and then so completely comfortable as he asked her detailed questions about her sexual history. It was like she completely trusted him as she answered without any hesitations while Quil could practically hear Greg's arousing thoughts at knowing that Claire was still an unexperienced virgin just waiting to be touched….

Quil had to lean forward and cover his face to keep from going out there and breaking them up. It didn't matter if he could see the truth about Greg, clearly Claire couldn't, and she would not appreciate it if he did something to intervene.

 _Finally_ , it seemed like Greg was about to take a break from his constant subtle come-ons and have Claire come back into the room with Quil when he actually heard Claire reach out a hand and touch him as she asked him to wait. She was obviously tearing up as she sincerely thanked him for his help the night of the accident (as if it wasn't his _actual job_ to treat her). And then to Quil's horror he heard Greg lean in and hug her. He was just imagining Claire's cleavage pressed up against Greg's chest when he suddenly had to focus on pulling the heat back into his naval and contain the wolf within as Claire finally came into the room that was supposed to be meant for her.

Quil didn't say anything. He _couldn't_ say anything, not while he was still regaining control. He just reached out a hand to her, wanting to feel her skin against his as he struggled to contain the last of his unwilling self-control. She had made some sort of joke about what was wrong with him, he wasn't even sure what, but he knew he wasn't fooling her that he was fine.

"I'm just tired." He had answered lamely.

She had said something about people dying in hospitals and then he knew that he was being a jerk when he had snapped something at her about morbidity. She was obviously getting upset with him as she tried to figure out what was bothering him, but he couldn't seem to reign in his own feelings of jealousy to have an adult conversation about the interactions he had just witnessed between her and Greg. It seemed ironic to him that _she_ was the one who could have a mature adult conversation about their feelings when _he_ was the actual adult between the two of them.

He had never felt these types of jealous feelings before. Even when Claire had been dating Bennett, he hadn't been jealous of the love and attention that she was giving him, he had only been concerned about another guy edging his way into her life and edging him out. But right now, he was definitely feeling the strong, sharp, burn of jealousy for every casual touch and sincere yet casual joking comment Claire had given to Greg as she had returned his flirty attention.

Fortunately, someone came into the room before Quil could say anything too stupid and really screw up things between himself and Claire, unfortunately, that person was Greg. He still wanted to throw something at Greg during all of their interactions (he had actually roll his eyes and lifted his hands off his legs in complete exasperation when Greg refused to take his word for it that Claire was allergic to penicillin but fortunately neither of them seemed to notice), but Claire now seemed much less attentive to him and that kept Quil sane, especially when he started actually doing his job and working on her stitches.

Claire had grabbed at Quil's hand as soon as he had slipped his around hers and he saw Greg notice her hand squeezed tightly around his with a confused look on his face before he went back to dressing her stitches. Claire was doing this nervous habit of twitching her fingers before squeezing Quil's tightly every few seconds, he didn't even think she was aware of doing it but Quil didn't even try to hide the smirk across his face at her subtle sign of possessiveness.

Quil immediately noticed her tension as a team of doctors walked into the room. _That accident must have been more traumatic for her than I thought_. Quil thought to himself as he saw her tighten up her whole body and stare up at the ceiling as her breathing accelerated. He squeezed her hand and was about to say something soothing to her when Greg had gotten right in her face to make this really annoying direct eye contact that seemed to communicate something to her that only she understood. Quil rolled his eyes, deciding that this interaction wasn't worth getting upset about, whatever helped Claire stay calm was fine as long as _this nurse_ could learn how to respect her space in the process. He heard the doctor greet Claire and ask her how she was doing, and she answered that she was great like she had just had a root canal.

He had been fine to stand back and watch Claire as the doctor worked quickly removing her stitches. He could see how even a nurse _without_ ulterior motives would want Claire as a patient. She was a dream. She always kept herself calm and she never twitched or fidgeted as the doctor continued to pull at her face. Her reaction to seeing her already beautiful face completely bandage and stitch free had even made the whole nightmare experience worth it for Quil. She was just so happy with how her face looked that he had to resist the urge to wrap his arms around her and lift her off her feet to kiss the side of her face she kept going back to the mirror to admire.

He had managed to keep his reaction to another simple eye roll when she _had to_ sincerely thank Greg for his help. _Again._ But thankfully she didn't hug him again and then he was finally gone and Quil could breathe out a sigh of relief at being left alone with his beautiful, giddy at having her face back, Claire. She laughed as she looked in the mirror again before she smiled at him and led the way out of the hospital with some seemingly extra pep in her step.

Quil had been feeling pretty good about the whole thing once they walked through the waiting room and he spotted Greg behind the desk at the nurse's station that faced out toward the entrance. Greg had lifted a hand to wave goodbye to Claire, but she hadn't even noticed him standing there as she slipped her left arm around Quil's waist and smiled up at him in excitement as they walked toward the doors. It felt pretty damn good.

He was nervous when they found the intense downpour waiting outside for them thinking that it would be enough to dampen Claire's mood since she had already had a bad day. But instead she seemed to embrace the rain as she walked past Quil and out the door. He took a second to look back as he walked out to see Greg still staring after her, he was definitely checking out her entire backside as she walked out the doors twenty feet in front of him.

Quil just shook his head and tried to brush off the entire interaction with Greg the nurse as he came to stand beside Claire. He was surprised to see her laughing at the rain and then even more surprised when she was clearly planning on running out into it as she took off her shoes to run barefoot. Quil had been about to offer to just pull the car around so that she wouldn't have to get wet when she had smiled up at him,

"Are you ready?" she asked all excited.

 _Man, she's SO sexy!_ He thought to himself as soon as she looked at him ready to run out without shoes into the middle of a monsoon level rainstorm with him. He knew that Greg was still watching them, and that Claire had told him that he was her uncle, but he just couldn't seem to stop himself from touching Claire as much as he justifiably could (Okay, that part he knew was a lie. He just didn't want to stop himself) as he ran his hand across her back and moved so close behind her that he could smell her hair before he ran his hand down her arm and grabbed hers. That was definitely not uncle behavior, but he knew that if he was being honest he didn't want _anyone_ (especially _Greg_ ) thinking that he was actually Claire's uncle.

They ran straight into the storm together laughing as they went. Quil's heart had completely stopped when Claire slipped on the pavement landing smack on her ass. He was terrified that she had either rebroken her arm or broken something else but then he had to laugh at her pure joy that came from the wet splash she had sent out when she fell. She was so cute. She was laughing up at him and Quil thought he had never seen something so beautiful as he lifted her back to her feet. _Not even close._

He had to tease her to try to unsuccessfully lighten the mood as he pulled her sopping hair around her ear. He already seemed to have lost all his control again and he was about to lean down into her when she shoved him as hard as she could, causing him to take a step back before she took off running while yelling back at him,

"I'm so going to beat you!"

He laughed at her adorableness before he took off after her. He felt true excitement for what had to be the first time in months (if not years) as he quickly caught up with her and had an excuse to wrap his arms around her tiny waist and lift her off the ground. He heard her shrieks of laughter as he held her and tickled her. He just couldn't get enough of her. He suddenly didn't care about the flirty interaction between her and Greg anymore because it was nothing compared to the way she was now _sincerely_ flirting with _him_.

She immediately snuggled up to him, wrapping her good arm around his back as soon as he set her back on her feet. He just stood there enjoying the peace that filled his heart as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him as they were being poured down on. He felt chills run down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold rain as she ran her fingers through the back of his hair before she laughed and said, "Good boy!"

He chuckled at her quip before he responded, "Am I your loyal companion?"

She pulled back and gave him the same coy, almost seductive, smile she had given to him before she had said goodnight to him the night before and replied, "Something like that."

He had _just_ been about to ask her if she would be interested in more than that from him when she said,

"Come on, let's get out of the rain! You're a mess!"

" _I'm_ a mess?! Look at you!" he had to laugh as he grabbed at her wet hair again. Really it was just an excuse to touch it and experience the way the scent mixed with the rain and wafted up to him when he moved it.

He let her lead him with their connected hands to the car (that was way too close for his preference), before he ran around to the driver's side to start it, knowing that Claire would be cold and that he wanted to get the heat going for her. He brushed across her and his arm got soaked just from her clothes and hair as he shut her door. He had looked up to grab the door handle as he pulled it shut and he caught just a glimpse of Greg standing at the glass wall of the entrance squinting out at them, he must have seen their interaction as they ran to the car in the rain.

Quil just smiled to himself as he turned up the heat for Claire before taking of his wet shirt that was sticking to him like glue. Quil hated wet clothes and the way that they rubbed against his body. He felt pretty horrible for Claire since she was soaked and would have to wear her clothes until they got back and could get her something dry. He laughed when Claire made a joke about his cleavage, surprised and impressed that she could make fun of the moment when he had seen so much of her own cleavage. He noticed her give a shiver in her wet clothes.

"You cold?" he asked her concerned.

"A little." She admitted as she shivered some more.

Quil decided to just crank the heat in the car knowing that if he pulled her close to him and used his own body heat to warm her he would be way too tempted to suggest that she take her wet clothing off… and then where would they be….

"Man! I can't even remember the last time I laughed that hard! Definitely not since before the accident! When did my life become so serious? I used to laugh all the time!" Claire remarked bringing him back to reality.

He just smiled at her, not trusting himself to say anything but unable to stop himself from actually touching her skin as he purposefully placed his hand on an exposed spot of her leg where her jeans were ripped. He had always known that Claire was tough, but her skin felt like freezing stone, she was obviously down playing how cold she was. He had to resist the same urge to convince her to strip down right there in the car and snuggle close to him for warmth as a naughty fantasy instantly began to play itself out in his mind.

 _Get it together, Quil!_ He chastised himself as he turned the heat up even higher instead of getting closer to her. His hand seemed to have a mind of its own though as it made its way back onto the skin of her leg while she said something about how the moment with him had been worth getting soaked for.

She just seemed so content sitting back with her eyes closed as he rubbed her leg softly. He justified feeling her skin that it was only to comfort her and monitor her body temperature but knowing even as he lied to himself that the truth was he just couldn't resist touching her in some form.

He spent the entire twenty-minute ride home driving at least five miles under the speed limit because he was so distracted by the internal battle going on in his head. He just wasn't sure how he felt about her anymore. She was _his_ Claire and he had always loved her but now…. Now things felt different between them. Was it just this new heated charge of attraction that felt like it was changing things or was it something else? Something more… He had told her just the day before that he had no plans to actually claim her for more than they already had for another five years but now suddenly he felt like he needed to find out if they could be more _right now._

He kept debating in his mind between the fact that she was still only sixteen (and a minor) and the fact that half of the time she was more mature than he was anyways. He _needed_ her, and he knew it. He wanted more than the loving platonic relationship they had always enjoyed. He thought he knew what he wanted now but he wasn't sure where she stood.

She had been more than _just_ responding to him for the last two or three days; he thought about the way that she had touched him (softly running her fingers all over the skin on his chest and back) while inspecting his tattoo and how she had _kissed_ his chest. Or about the way she had smiled invitingly and reached to kiss him the night before while they laid on her bed before wolf-Leah had interrupted them. Or even the way that _she_ had returned his kiss on Saturday night.

He knew that despite wherever she currently stood with him in her own mind, she _needed_ him too. He was good for her, he balanced her natural mature adult side out with his own easy-going heart.

The only question left in his mind now was if he could justify to himself pushing her for more so soon after her relationship with Bennett had ended and with the fact that she was still only half his own age... He continued debating what would be best for Claire against what he knew he truly wanted, _her_ , until she distracted him when they pulled up in front of the garage that Quil had driven to on complete autopilot.

She had asked him about getting food. He hadn't realized until she said something that he was hungry. And he instantly felt guilty for not pushing food on her since he had overheard her tell Greg that she hadn't eaten today. He immediately decided to order in since they weren't really in any state to go out anywhere to pick up any food. He made sure to order all of her favorites from the local Chinese place that would deliver to his shop. He saw her shaking again as she started to reach back for her bag and shoes.

"Just leave it. I'll get it later." He told her equally worried about her chill and the effect she would have on him again if she leaned close enough to him to grab her stuff.

He followed close behind her into the shop where he was suddenly grateful for her normal human senses when he smelled Bennett's now familiar scent lingering from the time he had spent with Quil after they had worked out that afternoon. He had asked Quil probably hundreds of questions while he sat in the cab of the truck that Quil had been working on. Everything from what _he_ was like when he was Bennett's age, to questions about their dad, to just regular wolf questions about fighting bloodsucking vampires.

He grabbed Claire's shaking hand and pulled her along to get her upstairs where she could change and get warm again….. hopefully without his help if he could contain himself.

He quickly dried himself with a towel while he refused to relinquish the feel of her hand in his as he dragged her around with him. He found some clothes for her, glad that he had thought to hold on to the random pair of her workout shorts he had found months ago in the faith that she would one day be back here and want to wear them. He was inexpressibly happy that she was.

He stood up and helped her with her wet sling (knowing she would struggle to get it by herself) before he went into the kitchen to grab something to drink with their Chinese food.

"You want a drink?" he asked her as he started investigating the fridge he had restocked yesterday.

"Yeah, I'll have a beer." she answered casually.

He had to freeze as he started to grab a can for her. Hadn't he just had an entire internal dilemma over the fact that she was still a minor and then he immediately forgot and treated her like an adult, even about to willingly serve her alcohol. He had to look up and give her a scrutinizing look until she laughed at his reaction clearly just messing around with him. He rolled his eyes shocked at the reactions she was getting out of him. How had he completely forgotten her age the second she asked for a beer?

He grabbed one for himself thinking that was a good place to start to try to loosen up from all the tension that had rocked him all day long. He grabbed a soda for her and set it on the counter. He had just popped the top of his beer and taken a deep swig as he rolled his shoulders back trying to loosen his tight muscles around his neck, but he turned reflexively when he heard her say his name.

He wasn't even sure if he was still in reality or if his mind had snapped and he had gotten completely lost in the beginning of one of the fantasies about her he had been doing his best to stave off _all_ afternoon.

She was coming toward him with her wet clothes and hair dripping across the floor while her shirt was flapping open. She was even attempting to open it completely to reveal even more of herself to him. It was like she was offering herself up to him on a silver platter as he _finally_ got the full-frontal view of her _gorgeous_ bra (and suddenly navy blue was his new favorite color) that wasn't doing nearly enough to cover her slim, cold, trembling body.

She snapped her fingers in front of his face suddenly.

"Hey! Eyes up top buddy!"

She said it in an angry sort of voice he had never even heard from her before. He couldn't even respond other than to look up at her as the reality of the situation came crashing down on him.

She wasn't seducing him… she was just changing out of her wet clothes... and he had just _blatantly_ checked out everything her sixteen-year-old body had to offer while she stood there watching him do it. There was definitely some hot feelings of shame and guilt as she held his eye to keep him from looking back down and objectifying her even more while she said,

"I need help with this pin… but then I think you had better go wait downstairs while I change."

He couldn't even think straight as he set down the beer in his hand before he forced himself to only stare at the top of her shirt with the pin in it as he undid it and then immediately thought, _I need a drink._

He grabbed his beer again and practically ran out the door before he did anything else incredibly stupid. He ran a shaking hand through his hair as he ran down the stairs to his shop thinking about how he had been on a roll this week.

First Leah… and then all of the ways he had continued to cave into his physical needs for Claire all week long… but this had to take the cake for the _stupidest_ thing he had done. He had freaking potty-trained this girl, slept in her bed with her, driven her to and from school for years and it had only taken one wet, rainy afternoon and a deep blue lacy bra for him to completely derail their relationship and potentially change the dynamic of it forever.

How could Claire possibly ever let him near her again after the way he had just sexually objectified her like that?

He started pacing back forth but suddenly he had to be doing something. He walked to the driver's side of the truck that he had spent the afternoon working on while Bennett pestered him. He popped the hood and then took another pull from his beer. He wondered how offended Claire would be if he drank three more in the next ten minutes. He shook his head and set it on the head light as he leaned back over and tried to pick up where he had left off when he had dropped Bennett off before picking up Claire from school.

He wasn't really making any progress, he was mostly just tinkering as he continued to struggle with his guilt. He would be thinking about how awful he felt about it but then would have images of her walking towards him with her wet shirt open pop back into his mind before feeling even more guilty again. It was a nasty perpetual cycle.

Quil had just reached over to take another large pull from his drink and thought he might need something stronger than beer after he realized that he might have just potentially jeopardized his entire future with Claire for one lustful moment with her in a wet shirt…

He was debating if he should call Jacob and see if he ever had this problem with Renesmee and would have any advice, but he somehow doubted that since Renesmee had reached her peak adulthood in about four years that there was ever a length of time in which Jake was physically crazy attracted to her while she wasn't emotionally mature enough for the type of relationship he wanted….. he heard Claire start the dryer upstairs and walk out the door.

"Hey, do you want me to throw your shirt in the dryer with my wet clothes?" he heard her ask.

He hadn't even realized that he still wasn't wearing a shirt until that moment. He had meant to throw one after he grabbed a drink but had completely forgotten to in the wake of his surprisingly lustful intentions towards Claire.

He turned around to tell her that he would grab her stuff out of the car with his shirt when he saw her again and was immediately frozen in the same trance he had been in when she had surprised him in the kitchen.

He had slightly enough awareness this time to think, _Oh, come on!_ _She HAS to be trying to seduce me… AND it's definitely working_.

He could see her leaning over the rail towards him wearing _ONLY his_ shirt that he had laid out for her with her sexy underwear hanging out just enough that he was willing to rip that shirt to shreds to get to more of it.

He was just thinking about how he was dying for her to turn around so that he could see the very bottom part of her ass hanging out from the shirt and only partially covered with the soft navy lace of her panties, but then she suddenly shattered the illusion when she self-consciously pulled at the collar of the shirt she was wearing covering the peeping bra that had been tantalizing him all afternoon.

That wasn't right…. Claire would never be self-conscience in one of his fantasies…. he had also just seen a small peep of the pink shorts he had found for her to wear and that helped clear away the image that she was just wearing his shirt with a matching bra and panty set meant _specifically_ for him.

"Is my being here a problem for you? Maybe, I should just go home…"

That set his heart (that was already sprinting) into hyperdrive. She wanted to leave? He was making her uncomfortable with his obvious lack of control towards her and she was going to go.

"No! Claire, I'm sorry! I'm fine. I'll work on it, okay? You just keep catching me off guard is all." He pleaded trying to help her understand his true intentions. "Really, please stay!"

He started walking up the stairs towards her when he saw her bite down on her bottom lip, obviously undecided.

 _Seriously!? Is she trying to make me INSANE!?_ He thought as he immediately wished that _he_ was the one biting her lip.

He stopped on the last step before the landing so that she was only a couple inches shorter than he was and he could make direct eye-contact with her. He also didn't trust himself to be within three feet of her _at all_.

"You have _got_ to stop doing that!" he said harsher than he had meant to as he closed his eyes and tried to shake out the image that had popped unwelcome into his brain.

It was of her biting her lip underneath him after he had shredded the shirt off her, lying on his mattress in just the matching bra and panty set that he had to remind himself didn't even exist.

"Doing what!?" she asked exasperated.

"Biting your lip!" he said finally looking back at her, practically begging her to understand the effect she was having on him.

"Why!?" she asked sounding completely nonplussed.

"Because, it's sexy!"

Didn't she get that!? Didn't she know!? Didn't she see all of the thoughts of her that were torturing him constantly!?

She stood shocked, staring at him like she was suddenly seeing him as the same horny, seventeen-year-old, sleep-around boy he had been before he had met her.

"I should just go, I'll just go get my stuff." She said in a disappointed voice as she turned away from him.

He instinctively stepped up to the landing and grabbed her arm to keep her from leaving him.

"Claire, wait! Please don't go!" he pleaded with her, "I'm sorry. All of this stuff between us is new to me and I'm just still trying to adjust to these unexpected feelings is all. But I _CAN_ control myself. I just _barely_ got you back in my life and I don't want to have you not be comfortable around me, alright?"

He was suddenly worried that he had just made her a promise that he couldn't keep. NO, he COULD control himself. Especially if the options were that or losing her again. He could see her torn confusion written across her face as she bit down on her lip _again_ and instantly tested his promise to control himself around her.

He blew out a large exasperated breath and looked away from her for a moment but looked back quickly knowing that she was much more likely to give him what he wanted if he could maintain eye contact with her. Thankfully she had seen his reaction and stopped tormenting him with her lip biting.

"Okay…." She said noncommittally, "But, from here on out we need some new boundaries, alright?"

"Boundaries don't seem like a bad idea." He agreed quickly thinking that agreeing to her terms was definitely his best bet and that he would probably need some boundaries anyways if he was truly going to be able to control himself around her.

"No more changing in front of each other." She stated making him feel the same hot feelings of shame from his reaction to her undressing in front of him minutes ago.

He nodded his head as he looked down unable to make the eye contact he had meant to maintain.

"No more sleepovers. I shouldn't have asked you last night."

He instantly wanted to argue and say that he had never done anything to lose her trust enough for her to kick him out of bed. He needed her… Screw that- she needed him right now and they belonged together… But then he took a breath and thought of the sexual connotations that went along with sharing a bed and couldn't see any way around agreeing to this condition. He just looked down and nodded again.

"You need to call or text before you come to see me, no more surprising me when I get out of the shower." She continued with her demands.

"I haven't done that in months!" he argued immediately.

What, did she think that the all of two times he had been waiting for her when she got out of the shower had been intentionally done to try to see her naked?

"Still, it wouldn't help this situation." She said unapologetically.

He looked back down, frustrated that he couldn't argue that seeing her naked would indeed not help this situation of him trying to find _some semblance_ of self-control.

"And most importantly….."

 _Seriously? How can she have MORE demands…. It's not like this has been a long-term problem._ he thought to himself as she continued to list her terms.

"….no more trying to kiss me."

He instantly looked up at her in frustration. She _had_ to be kidding him. She had definitely not shoved him away any time he had tried to kiss her, and she had seemed very receptive to his kiss both last night and on Saturday when they had actually gotten all the way to the kissing part. Not to mention the unusual amount of kissing she did on him. She was constantly kissing his body _someplace_ ; his cheek, his neck and beard, his chest….. Was she seriously arguing that all of those kisses were purely platonic?

"I'm serious, Quil." She said refusing to even give him the chance to respond. "I know it's not the same for you, but I can't handle the tease, alright?"

"What!?" he asked exasperated, " _I'm_ the tease!?"

There was _no way_ she could be serious….

"And what do you mean it's not the same for me!?"

Did she seriously think that the kisses he had shared with her weren't the most meaningful ones of his life?

She just closed her eyes in frustration and shook her head as she sub-consciously bit her lip again.

That did it for him. This went way beyond just physical attraction. He refused to let this woman (who had all of sixteen-years and one high school boyfriend under her belt) solely dictate all of the terms of their relationship.

He was tired of her feeling one thing towards him and then twisting it in her head a second later into something platonic. He _KNEW_ that she needed him. He knew that she knew it too, she just refused to acknowledge it. She seemed to be content to think that this element of physical attraction in their relationship was purely on his side and that it was her job to keep him in line; as if the kisses he had tried to give to her were anything less than the pure physical expression of all the love and affection that he had for her.

It wasn't even a question for him, he was _GOING_ to kiss her. Of course he was. They had always been _MEANT_ to kiss each other and her stubborn short-sidedness wasn't going to stop him.

She couldn't even see him coming to claim her while she was still so stuck in her own head over-thinking things.

He just grabbed her waist and started in for her, but she took a step back like that would be enough to keep him from coming for her. He simply followed her so that she was pinned between him and the door and he would have a better angle and more leverage to kiss her with.

"Quil!" she huffed angrily.

He rolled his eyes at her as he thought, _Could you PLEASE just stop trying to dictate and overthink EVERYTHING!?_

His lips were about an inch and a half from forcing her to acknowledge the truth that was right in front of her when she asked,

"Where do you plan to take this!?"

That stopped him enough to make him pull back as he thought, _Doesn't she know where I want to take this?_

He wanted her from now to forever. He wanted a ring on her finger and his last name attached to hers. He wanted it all.

Did she seriously not know that? Did she seriously think that this was only about the new found burning attraction between them?

She looked up at him intensely from only six inches away as she sincerely asked,

"Are you ready to try to make something more out of this…. Out of us?" confirming to him that she had no idea what his true intentions were toward her. Hadn't he made it abundantly clear to her already? "Because I'm not! Can you honestly say that you are!?"

He finally let her go as he took a step back from her.

There she was rejecting him. Refusing to even let him make the offer. She had set the terms and decided what she wanted and what she wanted wasn't _more_. Well if that was the case than there was zero point in him kissing her at all anyways.

"Okay!" he said finally giving her what she wanted. "I promise!"

He watched her blow out a large breath as she started shaking all over the place before she started tearing up while looking away from him. It wasn't until her tears couldn't be contained and started to fall that his frustration at their seemingly one-sided relationship started to ebb and he was able to see things from her perspective.

He knew her better than anyone. It wasn't that she didn't _want_ this. She just simply wasn't _ready_ for it. And his continual pushing of her with all of his subconscious come-ons were not helping her get what she needed.

He took a breath in before he set down the can of beer he finally realized he was still holding and pulled her into his chest. He could still very much have the future he wanted with her if he could just simply give her the space she needed until she was emotionally in the same place he was. He could give that to her.

"I'm sorry, Claire!" he whispered, knowing that if nothing else he owned her an apology for the way he had objectified her earlier, "You might have caught me off guard, but you deserve more respect and from now on I'm going to give it to you. Okay?"

He kissed her hairline the way he always had before as he swore to himself that he would go back to the strictly platonic relationship he had always had with her. She just nodded her head into his chest as she sniffed and wiped at her eyes.

"Could you roll this sleeve up for me?" she asked without really looking at him.

He quickly complied while vowing to himself to start waiting for her for the first time and shove all of his personal feelings to the side the same way she had done for Jamie the night before.

"Come on, you still need to tell me why your day sucked so bad." He told her trying to find the footing in their relationship again.

She nodded but tensed up as he reached past her to open the door he had forced her to back up against.

She just swallowed and took a breath in while staring down instead of looking at him before she turned and went back in. He took his own breath in, determined to leave his personal feelings in the shop behind him and not take them in with him. He felt slightly numb but lighter as he walked in past her and went to lay on his bed to listen to her story.

And that was how they had ended up laying on the bed next to each other three hours later with the empty remnants of the Chinese food in the box on the floor by the bed as Claire confessed to him that she had no idea how she was going to get through the rest of high school once Bennett came back and she'd have to sit next to him in class every day. She had been in the middle of saying,

"Seriously, Quil, how do I live down the title 'the New Scarlet Letter'?" when she suddenly gasped and turned to him, "What time do you have to go out tonight!? I totally forgot! I can go home so you can go!"

She was clearly referring to his wolf-run schedule and Quil just turned his head on the mattress to look at her and shook it before he said,

"I'm not going out tonight. I texted Brady while Greg was making googly eyes at you out in the hall and told him he was taking my shift tonight."

She didn't even acknowledge the comment about Greg but teared up when she said,

"You didn't need to do that! I know they need you out there!"

He just sighed at her reaction and wrapped his arm around her by snaking it under her where she was lying about eight inches from him and pulled her into his side. She curled into him and put her head on his chest while he continued to lie on his back and he started to run his hand down her long hair that had dried in a wavy, tangled mess after she had gotten soaked in the rain.

"It's fine, Claire. You seemed like you needed me after today and I have spent enough time training Bennett. I have gone out with him every night since he phased, not to mention the three hours I spent with him today while you were at school." He told her truthfully.

"You were with Bennett today?" she asked in a small tear-filled voice.

"Yes." He said slightly angrily, "And I have a bone to pick with you about that."

She pulled back on her side and lifted her head up to look up at him, clearly unsure what he meant.

"Why didn't you tell me you saw him yesterday!?" he asked her, letting frustration color his tone while a shocked and surprised look crossed her face. "Instead I have to relive it second hand from Bennett's perspective…"

"Stupid wolf-telepathy." She muttered to herself as she put her head back on his chest.

It was dark in the apartment now that the sun had set, they hadn't gotten off the bed to turn on any lights.

She shrugged against him and said, "I didn't want to talk about it." like that was an explanation.

"Claire!" Quil said exasperated. "I'm responsible for-"

"I already told you; you aren't responsible for me, Quil." She cut across him as she tensed up next to him clearly feeling defensive.

"No." he agreed, "But, I _am_ responsible for Bennett… Not only was he not supposed to be anywhere nearly as public as your high school -where people still think he's in Cleveland, but he isn't supposed to be _ANYWHERE_ near you! Not only could he potentially hurt you, but we have no idea what kind of physical side effects him just being near you might cause. This is a completely unprecedented situation , Claire. And you didn't think that I should know that one of the wolves that _I'm_ responsible for went rouge and endangered you in the process?" he said it as calmly as he could manage, knowing that Claire was mature enough to understand the seriousness of the situation if he explained it to her.

She was quiet for a second as she blew out a breath and Quil could feel her body noticeably relax next to his.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about it like that. It was just so painful to see the pain that _I_ cause him, I didn't want to think about it…. but I'll tell you the next time I see him." She told him honestly.

Quil nodded, satisfied with her response. He held on to her forehead as he leaned his head forward to kiss the top of her hair.

"Okay, Honey, that's all I wanted to hear." He told her quietly as he leaned back and yawned hugely.

He was exhausted from all of the extra shifts that he had been running and from trying to keep up with Bennett's energy all day (he was starting to think that kid really did have ADHD) and from the emotional (and slightly physical) toll of the roller coaster he had been on with Claire all afternoon and it had taken it all out of him.

He just closed his eyes and enjoyed the comfort of still being close to Claire, with her in his arms, even if it wasn't everything he wanted it to be yet. He could wait. She needed to be ready first anyways. He had realized it that evening as she had talked. He just laid there and continued to brush her hair soothingly with his hand until he fell into a quiet relaxed sleep without any intention to do so.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

"I bet I can go higher than you, Quil!"

Claire was nine years old again and was next to Quil on the swing set at the park on a Saturday afternoon.

"Yeah, I bet you can too, Nino, but maybe don't try. I don't want you to break an arm or something." Quil said as he laughed at the rather impressive height that Claire was getting.

She was such a small little thing… Not just because she was a child either. She was small for her age. The smallest kid in her class and Quil was always worried that her small frame was either going to get crushed under something or else completely blown away in one large gust of wind.

She just rolled her eyes at him. "I'm tougher than I look, Quil. You always think I'm going to get hurt." like he was the worlds biggest idiot.

Quil just shrugged at her. He had already gotten off his swing and moved closer to her since he felt nervous about her getting higher on the swing.

"Claire, you know it makes me nervous when you do that…." He told her while she squealed with giggles as she continued to swing up to the same height as the swing set itself so that the chain made a completely horizontal line.

"…. I'm cold, Quil…" he heard Claire's voice mutter softly, only he was confused because the Claire on the swing hadn't said it and her voice didn't sound like that.

"You better catch me, I'm going to jump!" she teased him with a laugh.

"You wouldn't dare!" he laughed back at her. She had to be ten feet in the air.

"Oh, wouldn't I!?" she said with more attitude than any nine-year-old should be capable of.

"…. Quil…. Cold….." her older voice muttered again, causing Quil to stir in confusion.

His heart was pounding nervously, he knew that she would jump just to prove that she could. Going head to head with her in a battle of wills would never work.

"Claire, please?" he had asked her in his softest voice.

"You really don't want me to?" she asked skeptically.

"Really!" he said insistently.

She didn't say anything for a few minutes. She just started dragging her feet on the ground to slow her speed and height down as she swung back and forth. It only took about four swings before she had slowed down enough to hop off the swing and walk quickly to where Quil was watching her from about five feet away. She put her small hand in his, she had to reach up to do it since she only came to about his waist. He blew out a large sigh, relieved.

"Thank you." He told her sincerely as his heart started to slow down.

She shrugged while watching a dog chase a Frisbee about a hundred yards away.

"I'd do anything for you." she said simply.

He was touched by her sweet, sincere loyalty. She had been going through this independent phase where she didn't seem to want to be told what to do. Quil knew that if either of her parents had her asked her not to do it she probably would have just to spite them. She was such a frustrating spit-fire that Robert and Susan were continually looking to Quil for advice on how to handle her since he was the only one who really understood her.

He crouched to her height and but his hand on the back of her head under her dark bouncy pony tail.

"Thanks, Claire, that means a lot to me." He told her honestly. "I'd do anything for you too. You know that, right?"

She nodded at him making her pony tail bob even more.

"Why do you worry so much though? I jump off the swing _all the time_." She asked him like he was ridiculously over-protective.

"Well… Because you are the most important thing to me. I don't think my heart could handle it if something happened to you. It'd probably just stop, and I'd die right there." He teased her as he moved his hand to her side and gave her a little tickle.

She giggled and then surprised him when she dropped his hand she had been holding to wrap both of her arms around his neck as tightly as she could while she said,

"I love you, Quil!"

He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and pushed her ponytail out of his face to hold it against the back of her head.

"I love you too, Claire."

"UUHH…. Quil…." her voice muttered a little louder next to him and this time it was accompanied by her snuggling deeper into his side.

Her movement next to him was enough to wake him up at least enough to realize what she was asking as he quickly rolled from his back onto his side so that she could snuggle deep into the warmth of his chest while he wrapped his arms around her without ever opening his eyes. He had to resist the instant urge to shove her away again the second that she pulled her knees up to her chest and placed her bare legs against the warm skin of his stomach. Her skin was freezing and did not feel good pressed unexpectedly up against him, but they warmed up quickly and he just pulled her tighter to him as he fell back to sleep.

He didn't dream anymore of his memories of Claire, but he continued to hear her voice mutter through his sleep every so often. Things like,

"…the bus…."

"…Ice cream…"

"….Don't cut my uniform..."

None of it made any sense to Quil, especially when he was asleep. He always responded to her voice though, immediately holding her tighter in his arms so that he knew she was actually okay and once rubbing her back softly while he was still half asleep when she had gasped out a harsh, "Bennett, don't!" before she thrashed a little in her sleep.

She seemed to calm down after awhile of Quil rubbing her back. She pulled herself up a few inches and put her head on Quil's bicep, using it as a pillow before she sighed out deeply and put her cold hand on his chest while she pulled her body up against him and intertwined her legs with his. Quil tightened his arms around her and immediately fell back into a deeper sleep than he had in years.

"Quil…"

He barely registered her tired mutter in his deep sleep.

"Quil!" she whined out tiredly, this time while using the hand against his chest to tap at him insistently.

"mmmmm?" he groaned tiredly.

"Cold! ... Close the window." She told him in short spurts as she pulled herself closer to his warmth and scrapped his side with the exposed scratchy material of the cast on her arm.

"Ooww." He muttered as he pulled himself forward on the bed toward the window she had left opened the night before, leaving her at about the middle of the bed where they had fallen asleep.

He quickly shut the window that was only open about six inches. It was cold enough for him to feel the chill though, so he knew that Claire must be freezing with her bare legs exposed. It was dark still but Quil could smell the snow in the air as he closed the window. The cold had woken him up a bit and he looked at the clock that said 6:13 am.

"Come get under the covers." He mumbled to Claire as he lifted the sheets up at the top of the bed.

She quickly crawled up to him and slid under them. She reached out to him with her left hand across her body and put her hand on his chest trying to softly pull him close to her, clearly wanting his body warmth.

"Hold on." He muttered to her as he stripped off his pants he had fallen asleep in while still sitting next to her. They weren't comfortable enough to sleep in and the black places where the bottoms had gotten wet in the parking lot of the hospital had dried, making the material oddly stiff and crunchy.

He threw his pants on the floor randomly and then climbed under the covers next to Claire in just his boxer-briefs. He wrapped his arms around her again as she snuggled into his bare chest and wrapped her cold legs against his. He had to shiver as her cold skin pressed up to him. She sighed out, enjoying the heat coming from his body before she tiredly asked,

"What time is it?"

"Six." He muttered quietly.

"Ugh" she groaned. "I need to go. I have to go to school." She spoke directly into his chest as she snuggled deeper into him.

"Just don't... Let's just go back to sleep... It's snowing anyways." he told her softly. He hadn't even opened his eyes since he had gotten under the sheets with her.

She just nodded her head against him and sighed. Quil reached up and pulled his pillow down into a more comfortable position under his neck before he put his arm back around Claire. He went to press his hand against her lower back and realized that her shirt must have gotten pulled up because he was touching her skin and couldn't feel the material of her shirt until about his forearm. He would have pulled away, but she sighed at his warmth and seemed to fall asleep. So he just stayed there holding her and touching her skin; on her legs pressed up against his until the tops of her thighs where her shorts were and on her back where his hand was wrapped around her and on the bare part of her midriff that was pressed up against the skin of his stomach. He just breathed in the smell of her hair under his nose with his chin and mouth pressed up against the top of her head. It smelled liked her mixed with the scent of rain from yesterday. He took in a deep breath of her and sighed out, relaxing as he fell back to sleep.

Quil woke up slowly as Claire started stirring in his arms doing her usual fight to stay asleep. He kept his eyes shut and just enjoyed the feeling of her so close to him with her skin pressed against his. He knew he should be feeling a lot of things…. _guilt_ for starters. She had spent the night in his bed hours after she had termed that they were done with sleepovers. He wasn't wearing any clothes other than his boxer-briefs. She was still in his shirt and just her little pink running shorts. He should have started working at least two hours ago. And he was the reason that Claire had skipped school to stay in bed with him. He hadn't even made sure that someone from her family knew where she was... But instead of feeling any of the guilt, he just felt completely contented knowing that beside him in his bed was exactly where Claire should always be.

He smelled her hair again as she flipped around in his arms so that he was now spooning her instead of cradling her to his chest. The motion scratched him with her rough cast again.

"Ow." He yawned as he lifted his hand from around her waist and used it to pull the sleeve of her shirt down around the cast.

"Sorry." She muttered, obviously still tired as she adjusted her head on his arm trying to get comfortable again.

She was trying to blow her hair out of her face that was now an uncontrollable tangled mess. She was lying on top of her left arm though and couldn't do much about it. Quil used his hand to brush all of her hair off her face and down her back before he rolled in tighter to her and kissed the top of her head.

He fell back onto his back with his arm still under her head as he yawned again and put his free right hand up to rub his face before he looked at the clock on the nightstand. He put his hand down on top of the sheets that were twisted because he had pushed them down to his waist and she had them pulled up to almost her shoulders.

"What time is it?" she groaned.

Quil couldn't see her face with her back to him but he knew she still had her eyes closed or she would just look at the clock herself.

"11:20." He informed her while bending the elbow of his left arm to pull his hand up to her face so that he could play with the hair at her hairline, twisting it in his fingers.

"Ha." She laughed out at realizing exactly how late it was. "Why is it still so cold then!?" she asked a little grumpily.

"You're _still_ cold!?" he asked skeptically. He would have gotten rid of the sheet and fleece blanket covering them hours ago if Claire hadn't been in bed with him.

She just nodded her head against his arm and said, "I'm not wearing any pants, remember?" as an explanation for why she couldn't warm up.

"Neither am I." argued Quil as he used his right hand to tuck the covers in tight between them, encasing her before he grabbed her hip and pulled her tighter to his side to keep warm.

"Yeah, well you're a freak, remember?" she said back and Quil could tell she still hadn't woken up all the way. "Wait, where are your pants?" she asked confused while she lifted her head to look over her shoulder with only one eye squinted at him.

He just pointed toward the floor where he could see his khaki dickies lying in a heap where they had landed.

She just huffed out a small scoff before she said, "So much for boundaries."

He just smiled guiltily at her and shrugged. She groaned as she put her head back on his arm and awkwardly used her casted arm to pull the covers up over her head. It took a few tries to get them high enough and Quil laughed at her sleepy dramatics.

"I'm sorry... Would it help at all if I told you that all of my boundary breaking was done unintentionally?" he asked her as he reached over and started softly rubbing her back that was pressed up against his left side.

"It's fine." she said finally starting to wake up, "The sleepover was my fault anyways and I'm the one who started the no-pants thing."

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused at how her sleeping over was her fault.

"You fell asleep last night after we talked. I was just going to let you sleep for a few minutes before I made you take me home but then I guess I fell asleep too. You're just so warm and snuggly. It's pretty much impossible not to fall asleep next to you." She explained.

Quil was just grateful she wasn't upset with him. He laughed relieved and thinking her description of his warm, snuggly self was cute.

"Do you think your parents have sent out a search team yet?" he asked her concerned.

She shook her head as she rolled over so that she was on her back tucked into him with her head still on his bicep.

"Honestly, I'll be surprised if they even noticed I was missing. I should check in with Rachel though. I'm sure she's worried."

Quil wanted to be frustrated with her parents but was actually just grateful for the time he got to spend sleeping next to her.

"Where's your phone?" he asked rubbing her hair back down her scalp with his left hand so that it hit his bicep before he went back up to her forehead and started over again.

They were both staring at the sunlight hitting the ceiling from the small slots between the blinds… Well he was, she mostly still had her eyes closed while he rubbed her head.

"Um…." She thought for a second, obviously still tired and disoriented. She put her left hand up to rub her face as she said. "…in my backpack in the car still."

"'Kay. I'll go get it for you. I need to get up and make some coffee anyways." He said while never wanting to actually get out of bed.

"Thanks." she muttered running her hand over her face and then pulling it back to look at it. "Ugh, I slept with my makeup on." She told him as she looked at the streaks of makeup her hand had pulled off her face.

Quil lifted his head to look at her and saw the mascara smudges around her eyes and the slight hint of red lipstick still on her lips. He actually thought it was really cute and sexy. Especially while she was wearing his shirt.

"Sorry." He said with a smile as he kissed the top of her head affectionately again and then leaned his head back down onto his pillow.

"Man, I'm such a mess! I need a major shower." She complained while she used her left hand to massage her right shoulder above her cast.

"Well, it's a hot mess." He told her comfortingly, not trusting himself to comment on the showering part.

She scoffed and replied, "As long as you still think so in fifty years… My face will _definitely_ be a hot mess if I keep sleeping with my makeup on."

"Always." He promised as he smiled up at the ceiling.

She was planning on waking up next to him in fifty years? That was definitely a promising sign. Plus, she hadn't been upset when she had woken up to find herself in his bed with him while he wasn't wearing clothes.

"I thought you were going to get my phone?" she asked him.

He just shrugged causing her whole head to move with his shoulder and arm. She rolled onto her right side around her cast and placed her left hand on his chest to support herself as she lifted her head up to look at him in confusion.

"I'm not wearing any clothes, remember?" he explained to her.

"So, why don't you put some on?" she asked confused.

"Because you said no changing in front of each other." He answered honestly.

She laughed as she buried her face in his chest with her messy hair falling around her blocking his view of her face.

"Quil, feel free to _ADD_ as many clothes as you like." She mumbled into his chest.

"Oh! So, it's just the removing clothes that you have a problem with?" he teased feigning confusion while he used his now free left hand to tickle the side of her waist as she leaned against him.

She laughed and said, "Oh! Imagine that!"

Claire sighed before she lifted her head back up to straighten herself out as she put her head on his shoulder with her forehead resting against his chin. She wrapped her left arm around his chest while she pressed her broken arm against his ribs and snuggled up to him again, clearly not wanting to get out of bed and start the day. He wrapped his left arm around her back and waist to hold her securely to his side as he laid contented with her in bed.

After a few quiet moments he said,

"I am sorry about school though. I probably shouldn't have convinced you to skip a whole day just to sleep in with me."

She scoffed before she said, "I honestly don't think I would have been able to bring myself to go back there today anyways…. It's fine. I'm so behind on my homework now, I'll just use today to catch up. What do you have going on?"

"Um…" he said as he used his right hand to rub his face again as he thought. "I'm on Bennett babysitting duty again today and I've got some work to catch up on too."

"That's still so weird. I don't think I'll ever get used to that." She told him honestly while still snuggled up to him.

"What?" he asked.

"That _you_ see Bennett so much, and I don't see him at all. If one of the two of us was going to be with him on a daily basis I definitely didn't think it'd be you." She explained.

He was surprised and impressed with how she had said it. It was the first time she had mentioned Bennett to him without seeming upset by it. Maybe another good sign?

"You think _that's_ weird? Yesterday he asked me what _OUR_ dad was like." He told her.

"Yikes!" she said sympathetically. "What did you say?"

"That he was a son of a bitch. What else would I say?" he answered unfazed.

"Sorry." He apologized through her fingers. She hadn't said anything or looked at him, but she had used her left hand to reach up and hold his lips together, clearly less than pleased with his vulgar language.

" _I'm_ sorry." She said referring to his dad.

"It's okay, honey, I'm fine. It's just weird suddenly having a 'little brother'." He told her truthfully. "I know he just wants to know about him. Of course, he's curious about the assho- sorry- the _guy_ that knocked his mom up and spawned him as a lovechild but what am _I_ supposed to tell him?" Quil asked her mystified. "I feel like he is looking to me for all the explanations and I have NO answers to give him."

She started rubbing his chest up and down, soothing him. He reached up and put his right hand on top of hers, holding it to him and appreciating the comfort she was offering.

"He just wants to get to know _you_ , Quil. _You're_ the key to this whole other side of his life he was never known before." She explained.

He thought about her response for a second before he asked,

"How are you so much more mature than I am!?"

He was definitely confused by all of her wisdom and was wondering where she was getting it from. She just laughed against him.

"Alright!" he said. bracing himself to pull away from her. "I'll go get your phone. Stay warm in bed. I'll turn the heater on, just wait until it heats up before you get up."

She nodded into his chest as she sighed like she didn't want him to leave her in the bed without him. He smiled as he pulled his hand from around her waist to grab her forehead and kiss her head again before he dropped her hand in his against his chest and then slid out from under her.

Even he had to admit that it was chilly as he slid out of bed without any clothes besides his underwear. He quickly went to the thermostat on the wall between the bathroom and the dryer and turned on the heater that he rarely used and cranked it up so that it would warm up quickly for Claire before he pulled out a pair of sweat pants from his dresser and put them on.

He looked over at Claire still curled up in his bed watching him from where he had left her. He smiled at her before he bent down to dig around for his keys in the pocket of his pants that he had thrown on the floor.

"Aren't you going to wear a shirt? It's freezing!" she asked him.

He hadn't planned on it. The cold never bothered you when your resting temperature was 108 but he thought of how he had promised to show her more respect and pulled a t-shirt out of his drawer and shrugged into it quickly.

"'Kay, I'll be right back." he told her as he opened the door.

"Don't get lost!" she teased him.

He was back in less than two minutes.

"So, I have some bad news…" he told her when he had walked in the door to find her in the same position he had left her in. He tossed her backpack next to her on the bed and dropped his crunchy shirt in the hamper next to the washer.

"What?" she asked warily as she sat up and started going through her backpack.

"Your shoes are pretty much frozen solid." He confessed as he dropped them by the front door where they clunked solidly and bounced away from each other.

"It's fine. I'll just go barefoot. I only need to make it to my house." She said as she started going through the messages on her phone.

"Your toesies are going to be cold!" he told her as he started pouring coffee grounds in a filter and then filled the pot with water from the tap. "There's still about an inch of snow on the ground."

She shrugged as she started typing on her phone while he poured the water in the machine and hit the button. " _All_ of me is going to be cold. I'm going to have to go like this, there is no way I am going to be able to get back into those jeans, and let's be real, I don't think you could handle pinning that top together for me again." She told him looking up from her phone as she set it in her lap with her legs crossed together under the covers still.

He smiled guiltily at her as he came back to the bed to wait for the coffee. "Sorry again…." He told her sincerely. She just shrugged and brushed it off with her left hand like it was old news.

"You seem to be handling what happened yesterday better than I expected." He noted.

She looked up at him before she asked, "You thought that I'd be offended you're attracted to me?"

He shrugged, surprised by her casual response to what had happened about fifteen hours ago. "…. More like upset by the way I handled it." He confessed while watching for her reaction.

She smiled at him a little ruefully like something was funny before looking back down, checking her phone.

"What?" he asked, curious at her response.

"Nothing." She said, quickly trying to hide her smile.

"What's funny?" he probed her, prepared to tickle torture the answer out of her if need be.

"I just think it's cute that you think you're the only person to ever notice me…. Did you honestly think you were the first guy to ever check me out?" she explained.

"How many guys have checked you out _in your bra_!?" he asked her, immediately concerned.

"Only about half of the guys in my Algebra 2 class yesterday…" she huffed clearly still upset about the day before.

He made a face thinking about it and then said, "Sorry, hon, that sucks... Guys are the worst."

She laughed as the coffee pot beeped indicating it was finished brewing. He got up and went back into the kitchen.

"Do you want some coffee?" he asked while suddenly wondering what age it was appropriate to start drinking coffee at.

"Mmmm, yes! Anything warm sounds good right now." She said eagerly.

"How are you still cold?" he asked her as he pulled a couple mugs out of a cabinet.

"Life is just different at ninety-eight degrees." She said simply as he laughed.

"What do you want in it?" he asked her with his back to her as he filled both mugs.

"I got it." She said finally getting out of bed and coming over to him in the kitchen. "I don't want to end up with cups of pixie sticks in mine." She teased him as he poured powdered creamer into his.

He smiled at her as she came up next to him with the milk she had pulled out of the fridge.

"What?" she asked with a return smile for him.

"Just glad you're here." He explained simply with a shrug.

She smiled at him again before she poured milk in her mug and then dug through the dishwasher for a spoon. She put the milk back in the fridge before she picked up the creamer he had abandoned on the counter and started pouring it in.

"I thought you said you _didn't_ want pixie sticks in your coffee." He teased her from where he was leaning against the counter by the sink and drinking his coffee while watching her move around the small kitchen and thinking again about how obvious it was she belonged there.

"No, I said, I don't want _cups_ of pixie sticks in my coffee." She corrected while she smiled at him as she stirred it all together.

"Ah!" Quil said as if that explained everything.

She winked up at him as she brought the mug to her mouth and blew on it before she took a sip. It might have been the most adorable thing he had ever seen, and he resisted the urge to reach out to her and pull her to him.

"So, are you going to come over and study later while I do my homework?" she asked.

"Study?" he asked her confused.

"Yeah…. You didn't give up on taking the GED, did you?" she asked instantly concerned.

He just looked at her a little skeptically before he said. "Claire, I got my GED in November."

She seemed frozen for a second and then… "What!?" she shrieked with excitement. "You're kidding! And you didn't tell me!? Where is it!? I want to see it!"

Quil just shrugged before he moved over to the table by the window and set his coffee down as he went through the small pile of mail and papers sitting there until he found the manila envelope that the certificate had come in.

"Here." He said handing it to her as he sat down and picked his mug back up.

She quickly set her coffee on the counter and came over to grab it from him before pulling the certificate out to look at. She was silent for a moment before she said all excited,

"Quil!"

He laughed as she started bouncing up and down all worked up about it.

"It's not that big a deal." He said good-naturedly as she came up behind him and wrapped both her casted and good arm around his neck hugging him.

"It's huge, Quil! Really! We need to do something to celebrate how smart you are!" she said sincerely like he had just gotten a PHD in microbiology or something.

Quil laughed again at her reaction mostly. He was just enjoying her excited embrace and said, "Whatever you want to do, Claire."

"Oh! I know! Let's make a cake since we didn't get a chance to celebrate your birthday yet either!" she was still holding him and still bouncing with excitement.

"How are you going to bake a cake with only one arm?" he asked her a little skeptically even while knowing that Claire could do anything if she was really determined.

"You'll help me, of course!" she said like it was obvious. "I found this recipe on Pinterest that I've wanted to try, and this is the perfect opportunity! Muah!" she planted a big kiss on his cheek before squealing excitedly. "Okay! So, why don't you drop me off and get some work done while I get cleaned up and do my homework and then you can come over, so we can celebrate, alright?" she told him while straitening up and running back to the kitchen for her coffee while Quil secretly thought that he might need to switch her to decaf if it always made her this bouncy.

"Sounds like a good plan." He said with a laugh as she winked at him over her mug again.

She kept bouncing around excitedly for a few minutes as she drank her coffee. Quil quickly finished his and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

He couldn't trust himself to be left alone with her much longer when she was acting that cute. Plus, they were pushing noon and still had yet to get going. She nodded before she put her mug in the sink and said,

"Just let me get cleaned up a bit first."

She quickly went into his bathroom and started poking around.

"Hey, where's your cinnamon toothpaste?" she asked after a moment.

"Uh, I switched a while back…" he answered vaguely as he followed her into the bathroom not wanting to admit that he had switched because the spearmint reminded him of her.

He stood behind her and reached around her to grab his electric tooth brush as she handed him the toothpaste she had been struggling with around her cast. She stuck her index finger out on her left hand and he squeezed toothpaste on it before putting some on his toothbrush. He heard her groan as he turned on his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth.

"Hmm?" he asked her with the toothbrush in his mouth.

She nodded to her reflection with her finger in her mouth indicating her less than glamorous appearance. Quil still thought she looked awfully tempting with her messy hair and makeup stained face. He just chuckled and didn't even have to think about it before he moved in close behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist. She pulled her finger out of her mouth and looked at him in the mirror above her as she said.

"You better not get toothpaste in my hair!"

Quil laughed as he said around his toothbrush, "I thought you were going home to shower, I'm just helping you shampoo your hair with minty freshness."

She smiled but narrowed her eyes, giving him a teasing warning look. She leaned over and washed her finger and mouth in the sink before using her left hand to wet her face, she looked up to open the medicine cabinet and grab the bar of facewash that she had left there probably over a year ago and use it to wash the rest of her makeup off with just her left hand. She stood up looking for a towel. Quil pulled his hand back from around her waist and grabbed a towel hanging on the rod behind him before handing it to her.

"Thanks" she said with her face pressed into it. "Hey, this is new. So fancy." She teased touching the toothbrush buzzing in his mouth.

He raised his eyebrows at her as he said, "You know me, so fancy."

She laughed as she started rubbing her lips together before she asked.

"When did you get that?"

"Uh, my mom gave it to me for Christmas." He told her as he dug an old chapstick out the medicine cabinet and handed it to her before he moved around her to spit in the sink and wash his mouth.

"Thank!" She said surprised before she liberally applied it to her dry lips. "That sounds like something your mom would do." She laughed knowing his mom was a dental-hygienist.

Quil nodded as he took the towel hanging over her casted arm and dried his mouth with it.

"She asked about you. I don't talk to her for six months and of course all she wants to talk about on Christmas is how you're doing." He told her as he hung the towel back up behind her.

"What did you tell her?" she asked while looking at her feet and dragging her fingers through her long hair trying to comb it out.

"I don't know, something bogus about cheerleading and that I'd bring you by sometime soon. You know there's no way she'd follow up about it." He said casually with a shrug.

She looked right up at him and stared into his eyes as she suddenly said sincerely, "I'm sorry, Quil. I shouldn't have pushed you away like that. I really messed everything up…. I ….. I'm just _really_ sorry." She finished flustering with tears in her eyes.

"It's alright, Claire." He told her truthfully as he put his hand behind her head and pulled her into his chest. He felt like his heart was breaking at just the site of her in tears again. "I know why you did it and that was just as much on me, alright? I shouldn't have made you feel like you couldn't have room to grow with me holding on to you so tight."

She sniffed as she reached up behind him with her left hand to grab on to his shoulder and hold him tightly.

Quil was already having a hard time trying to convince himself to pull back instead of holding her tight and refusing to let her go when he heard his phone ping on his night stand. Claire sniffed again, and he said,

"Really, Claire, we're okay, I promise. Just don't cry. You know I can't stand it when you cry!"

She laughed as she pulled back and wiped at her eyes.

"Well you're stuck growing with me now." She said, and he was reminded of what Jacob had said about how she wouldn't push him away again now that she had had a taste of life without him.

He just smiled at her before pulling her towards him and giving her a kiss on her head before he walked back out to check his phone that had pinged again. She checked her face in the mirror and wiped her tears before following behind him. She picked up her backpack from the bed and threw it over her shoulder before she went to pick up her frozen shoes. Quil used her distraction to read the message from Bennett that said,

So, What's the plan man? Want to work out again?

Quil blew out a small breath before he responded,

Yeah, just give me an hour.

Claire was waiting for him by the door.

"Ready?" she asked him patiently.

"Yup." He replied as he grabbed his keys and followed her out.

"Cold, cold, cold, cold!" Claire muttered as she ran on her toes through the inch of slush on the ground to the car.

Quil laughed as he opened her door and she quickly jumped in before putting her bare feet up on the seat and wrapping her broken arm awkwardly around her knees, huddling for warmth. He quickly got in and started the car, the heater immediately started blowing out cold air while the car heated up and Quil reached over to put his warm arm around Claire, she gratefully leaned into him over the console as he pulled out, driving one handed.

They made it to her house before the car had a chance to warm up and she quickly grabbed her bag from off the floor in front of her before opening her door and making a dash for the house. Quil was just getting out of the car when she ran through the unlocked front door. He hurried to follow her through the door she was holding open for him.

"Well, someone's in a hurry." He commented as she shut the door behind him.

"It's cold! Besides you think I want all of the neighbors to see my walk of shame." She teased as she gestured down at herself still in short pink running shorts and his shirt. He laughed, and she walked past him into the house before she casually said,

"So, what are you going to do with Bennett all day?"

"Uh, I'm going to take him to the gym, but I need to head home and shower first." He told her while watching to see how talking about Bennett would affect her.

"Why shower _before_ you work out?" she asked him confused.

"Well I need to go shave, remember?" he told her as he ran his hand up his neck and through his now about inch long beard.

She looked at him critically for a moment before she reached up with her left hand to feel the side of his face and said,

"You know, I don't really mind it now that it's long enough to not scratch."

"Huh? That's good to know." He said as he looked at her in surprise. "But I still need to shave this time." He suddenly looked away from her feeling guilty.

"Why 'this time'?" she asked not missing his reaction.

"Just 'cause…." He said vaguely wishing he hadn't gotten into it.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." He said shrugging and not looking at her.

"Quil, why do you suddenly need to shave so bad?" she asked, putting her hand on his chest so he couldn't move around to evade her.

He blew out a surrendering breath before he looked down at her and explained,

"The other day when I talked to Leah about what happened she just said that it was a mistake and it only happened because she was lonely and…." He trailed off.

"And…?" Claire immediately asked wanting the rest of the story.

"…And she has a thing for beards…." He admitted hesitantly while looking away.

"Eww." Claire surprised him by saying. "That's so weird and pervy!"

He knew Claire was probably just being extra critical right now because of her currently strong feelings towards Leah so he just shrugged in response. She shook her head a little to clear it before she said,

"So…shaving it?"

"Shaving it." He agreed. She just nodded her head satisfied.

"It'll be good to see more of this face again, anyways." She told him sweetly as she put her hand back on the side of his cheek where his beard was. He just smiled at her affectionally.

"Come on, I'll help you get ready to shower." He told her before he could get too tempted to try to kiss her again.

She nodded and headed up the stairs to her room. He had been expecting her to go into the bathroom in the hall she had always shared with Jamie but instead she went into the bathroom attached to her room that she must share with Rachel now. She opened a drawer under the counter and pulled out a bunch of stuff. Holding it between her cast and her body she walked back into her room and dumped it on the bed that Quil was standing next to waiting for her. He looked down to see a box of saran wrap, a white garbage bag and a small ball made up entirely of rubber bands.

"Wow, what do we got going on here?" he asked curiously while looking at the supplies she had dumped.

"So, we have to saran wrap the cast first, and then use the rubber bands to hold the trash bag over the whole thing." She explained as she started shoving her long sleeve up to expose her cast.

He made an impressed face at her, surprised that she had been managing this complicated routine every time she had to shower.

"Okay!" He said enthusiastically as he pulled the roll of plastic saran wrap out of the box. "Start at the top or bottom?"

"Top." She aswered as she used her left hand to hold her bulky sleeve up exposing all the cast that started at about the middle of her lean bicep.

Quil wrapped the plastic carefully all the way around and down her cast about twenty times until he got to the spot where her thumb poked out.

"That's good. I hate the way it feels pressed against my fingers so just stop there." She assured him.

He grabbed a few rubber bands off the ball and slid them over his wrist before he slipped the puffy bag over her entire arm and then started slapping rubber bands into place, holding it around her cast. When he got to the top he slid a rubber band all the way up her cast and used it to hold the bag closed around the skin of her arm, closing off her cast completely.

"Good?" he asked. "Is that rubber band too tight?" he touched the one closing the bag around her bicep.

"It's fine." she said shaking her head a little.

"'Kay, what's next?" he asked picking up the ball of rubber bands and throwing it up to bounce off the ceiling before catching it again.

"Um… nothing, that's it." She said hesitantly.

He looked back at her after catching the ball to see her looking a little embarrassed and biting her lip. He blew out a breath as he pushed his attraction for her away again and evaluated her for a minute before figuring out her hesitation.

He switched the ball to his left hand before he quickly reached his right arm all the way around to the back of her where he grabbed her bra through her shirt and pushed the clasp back between his thumb and fingers with a twist until it popped apart in one quick seamless motion. His arms were so long that he barely had to lean toward her to do it and there was still a foot of space between them. She instantly gasped, shocked and surprised as she stared up at him.

"How did you just…!?" she flustered obviously shocked at his one-handed ability.

He laughed as he went back to bouncing the ball off the ceiling.

"I think it's cute that you think you're the first bra I've unhooked." He teased about her comment from early.

She just slapped at his chest as a reprimand before she said. "You'll have to show me how to do that with just one hand."

"It's all in the twist, babe." he said unfazed by the interaction. "'Kay anything else?" he asked.

He hadn't even gotten a look at her sexy bra when he had unhooked it, but he didn't want to stay around long enough to start thinking about her without a bra holding anything back.

"No, I'm good. Thanks." She said sincerely while gathering the box of saran wrap up to take with her back into the bathroom.

"'Kay see you in a few hours." He told her as he threw the ball on her bed and made his way to her door not trusting himself to touch her in anyway as he said goodbye.

"See you!" she said brightly as she headed into the bathroom and started the shower.

Quil had to leave the house quickly since he could still hear her stripping off her clothes through the walls over the noise of the shower.

As soon as he got back into his car he spotted Claire's shoes still on the floor where she had dropped them. He didn't trust himself to take them back in the house, so he just left them while he hurried home. He would just give them back to her when he saw her again in a few hours. It also reminded him that she had left her clothes from the day before in his dryer.

He ran up the stairs and into his apartment less than two minutes later knowing that Bennett was likely to show up in about half an hour. He hurried and grabbed Claire's clothes and just tossed them on top of his bed, so he wouldn't forget to drop them off, before he stripped off his clothes, throwing them directly on the floor and not bothering to put them with his laundry. He hopped into the shower and then suddenly slowed down as the hot water started soothing his tight muscles. He had meant to be fast, but he couldn't seem to force himself to move against the water hitting him.

It had been less than twenty-four hours since the last time he had showered but in that time his libido seemed to have sky-rocketed in direct correlation with his feelings for Claire. It was like he had gone all of this time without any sexual needs at all and then suddenly been hit with a buildup of fourteen years' worth of sexual frustration all within the last thirty-six hours.

He felt as if every single muscle in his body was tight with the tension from it and he couldn't seem to force a faster shower as he rolled his shoulders and neck under the hot water and did his very best to not imagine Claire in a similar position, naked in her shower.

Eventually the thoughts that he _wasn't_ thinking became so distracting that he had to turn down the water and literally take a cold shower to cool himself down and force his thoughts away from her. He finally climbed out of the shower and toweled off as he walked out of the bathroom and found a clean pair of boxer-briefs he quickly climbed into before he went back into the bathroom.

He had to dig around under the sink for five minutes before he found his electric buzzer that he would need to shave his beard since it was currently so long. Even if Claire didn't mind the beard (which had been a pleasant surprise for him to find out) there was no way he was going to leave an obvious turn-on for Leah on his face as a constant reminder for both her _and_ Claire now.

It took ten more minutes to trim his entire face and neck down to a length which he could shave off with a razor. He was just finishing up trimming with his buzzer when he heard quick steps on the stairs and the door to his small apartment open. He looked through the open door of the bathroom to catch Bennett letting himself into his apartment.

"Hey man." Quil greeted him casually with a nod as he continued to pull the clippers up his neck.

He was surprised when he didn't hear Bennett say anything in response and he looked up from the mirror to look at him only to find him frozen in the doorway staring directly at Quil's bed.

That was when Quil saw that Bennett was shaking and realized how strong Claire's scent must be since she had only left an hour ago. He was so used to it after spending close to twenty hours straight with her that he hadn't even noticed. But once he did notice it he realized exactly what Bennett was seeing.

There was evidence of Claire staying the night all over the apartment, from her mug in the sink, to her clothes thrown on the top of the bed with her scent still all over them, to his bed which was a mess and had her smell the strongest. Quil's clothes where even still strewn across the floor, from his pants from the night before, to his sweats, t-shirt, and boxer-briefs he had taken off before his shower. He himself was still only in his boxer-briefs since his shower.

Quil put the clippers in his hand in the sink as he saw Bennett finally look up at him with sharp rage in his shocked eyes. He could see Bennett's hands shaking so hard he might phase right there.

Quil's only thought was, _Oh shit._

 ***Author's Note***

 **To Jen in Australia, Ahh! I was so excited to hear from you! Thank you so much for leaving me your very first review all the way from down under (um that sounds dirty, but I swear it's not)! I would have sent you a private message but since you weren't signed into an account I'll settle for publicly thanking you.**

 **Thank you to** _ **anyone**_ **who leaves a review or who simply continues to read chapter after chapter. This is a part in the story where it's gaining a lot of momentum and I'm having a lot of fun going through it all again. I promise to have the next chapter up promptly (probably before tomorrow!).**

 **Xoxo**


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

 **Bennett:**

Bennett thought that his head had to be about to explode from all the conflicting emotions bouncing around in his brain faster and harder than a pinball machine. Hurt, Betrayal, Frustration, Anger, but mostly Denial. This time the denial came in two forms.

His usual form that he had battled with all day, everyday, since his first phase. The kind that was always there as an impenetrable wall reminding him that Claire was not his, never _was_ his, to think about or feel anything towards in anyway.

The second was completely new. It was denial at what he was seeing. It couldn't be. It just wouldn't be true. The possibility was too painful to consider but then of course even that thought was hit by the same first wall of denial because it shouldn't be painful for him to consider the possibility of Claire losing her virginity to someone else.

No, not someone else. To Quil. Because she belonged with Quil. It was the same thought that barraged his head all day long. She belonged with Quil. It wasn't even so much that she was his, as that _he_ was _hers_ and that didn't leave any room for Bennett in the picture.

Today had actually been the first day all week that Bennett's head didn't feel so much like a constant migraine plaguing him as his brain was being torn in half between what he felt and wanted and what he could actually have. He had thought that it was because he was finally learning to accept things the way they were.

It got easier the more that he got to know Quil. Quil was a good guy. Probably even worthy of Claire. He had definitely put in his time there, that was for sure. Bennett had a lot of respect for him. He always felt Quil's own instinct to rip him apart for the way he thought about Claire, but he never did anything about it. He just shoved all his feelings aside in a way that was beyond enviable to Bennett, it seemed downright unachievable. The self-control Quil had to process things strictly through feeling and not thinking, so that he only thought things he wanted the other wolves to hear was incredible.

All the other wolves were pretty impeccable too after so many years of practice with wolf telepathy, but Quil's head was a freaking vault. It was so compartmentalized and secure. Bennett could count on probably two fingers the amount of times he had seen something in Quil's head that he hadn't wanted him to see, and even then, they had just been images, snapshots, not actual thoughts or intentions, barely even feelings associated with the images…. and of course, the images had to have been of Claire….

Leah kept telling him that he would gain control with practice. That all of the wolves had had just as many embarrassing experiences with complete lack of privacy but that it had just all been years ago, and they had all gone through it together back during the bloodsucker days (that was what Bennett called the time a few years back when there had been so many wolves because there had been so many vampires). It definitely sucked to be the one low-man on the totem pole.

Everybody else had their shit figured out. And here he was, the wolf that wasn't supposed to be, the bastard offspring that didn't belong and was in love with the imprint of not only another wolf but of his own half-brother alpha wolf who had all the power and authority over him. It sucked. Seriously. The only good part was the actual being a wolf part. Bennett had always been fast and athletic, but this was a whole new level of powerful. He was literally strong enough to rip apart the world's most powerful predator and that was a sick feeling.

He had loved training and learning all the strategies for ripping vampires apart and stop their coming attacks. It was sick watching in the pack's memory the past battles between legendary wolves like Sam and Jacob and the bloodsuckers they had taken down. Sam was big and impressive but Jacob… man Jacob was huge, and a total badass.

They were all technically meant to be wolfs since it was a calling past down through the bloodlines to protect the tribe (and humanity in general) but if anyone was _supposed_ to be a werewolf, it was Jacob. He was a freaking savant as a wolf. He seemed to move on instinct so fast and lethal he was beyond thought. That was probably why it seemed so beyond strange to Bennett that he had ended up with an entire coven of vampires as their what…. son-in-law? It was so bizarre. Jacobs own kids were the grandchildren of vampires…. Too weird to even think about it. But he guessed it all came back down to how truly screwed up imprinting was. It took away a wolf's will-power and left him strapped in an unescapable one-side relationship. Bennett himself had had his own decisions scraped from him because of the power of imprinting and that had only been because of Quil's imprint.

At the moment though he wasn't thinking about how cool being a wolf was or even about how much imprinting sucked. He was trying to fixate on his anger. Anger was the only feeling he could feel without confusion. He could be angry at Claire and that was it. Any other feeling just got him shut down, sometimes even painfully. Hurt, betrayal, even sadness, were all too closely connected to the love that he couldn't feel anymore but that he didn't know how to get rid of either.

He could feel his body shaking so badly that he probably would have been ripped apart already to be replaced by the giant wolf he now had the ability to be, but he seemed to be stuck in this form as his mind was being torn apart even as he tried to hold onto the anger that was the only thing that would allow him to have a clear head.

 _SHE said! SHE wanted to wait! She SAID she wasn't ready. That she LOVED me but that SHE didn't want to rush it, well she sure seems fine to rush things now. HELL, we broke up less than a week ago and she has already jumped in another guys bed._ He thought furiously to himself, focusing on the anger and not the betrayal that would shut him down again.

 _NOT another guy... Quil. She jumped into Quil's bed!_ Argued back the wolf voice in his mind. _Quil CAN have her. She belongs to Quil._ He shook his head trying to clear out the argument that was justifying the obscenity that he was seeing directly in front of his face.

He had this literal voice in his mind that was both him and not him. It was the voice of his wolf-brain, a voice that he should be in perfect harmony with, just like all of the other wolves, but of course his brain was split into the wolf-Bennett that knew and accepted that Claire belonged to Quil and then there was the regular old Bennett voice in his mind, the one that had just been a seventeen-year-old goofy kid that was good at sports and had somehow managed to land the unicorn of a perfect girl as his girlfriend and was _never_ going to let her go. By this point Bennett felt like that super-villain from the Spiderman comics, the green-goblin or whatever. He had some sort of split-personality and was always fighting himself in his own mind between two separate voices that were both him. That was exactly how Bennett felt now.

 _How could she have sex with ANYONE!? She LIED!_ He argued trying desperately to hold on to his anger.

 _She doesn't belong with you!_ The wolf-voice argued back insistently.

He could feel the betrayal starting to seep in too, but he shoved it aside before he could think about it.

 _She doesn't belong with you._ The voice thought again but this time a memory had popped up of its own accord of Claire kissing him after one of his football games right there on the field and the way that she had smiled at him after she pulled back said that she _did_ belong with him.

Boom. Blank wall. Smacked in his head so hard that it hurt.

 _She doesn't belong with you!_ The voice seemed to chastise him.

His entire thought process seemed to have sped up since he had walked in and all of it had flashed through his mind in hyper speed.

"…Stay calm..."

He barely registered Quil's calm authoritative voice through the chaos of two of his own voices in his head.

"…You can't afford to phase here…." He heard Quil say calmly just as the wolf-voice in his head seemed to win out control over the voice that was still in love with Claire.

The problem was since it was the wolf part that had won he also felt the heat coming stronger from his gut tearing him apart.

"…. Think about school, you want to go back, right? …. You want to see your friends again….. You can't do any of that if you lose control….. Get control." Quil told him.

He didn't even have enough control to look away from _her_ clothes all over Quil's bed where he could smell exactly how much her skin had rubbed against the sheets.

" _How!?"_ he barked back at Quil while still frozen, shaking and staring at the bed.

"Focus your senses, process what you're really seeing." Quil said, still calm as ever.

Bennett quickly snapped his head up to look at him finally. How would that help!? He was seeing enough of everything. Quil wasn't even wearing clothes… Bennett didn't need to process any more than he already had. He could feel the heat spreading and his shaking increase.

"Hey!" Quil said sharply while holding his hands up in a seeming surrender before he said slightly defensively. "I didn't touch her! You would know that _if_ you focused your senses. Look again, and this time focus!"

Bennett immediately assumed he was lying but decided that the evidence could speak for itself, so he took a deep breath and looked around again trying to focus on picking up all of the pieces of evidence instead of just the damning ones.

It was irrefutable that she had been here, her scent was _EVERYWHERE_ , but for how long was the first question he decided to try to answer. In some places her scent was fresh…. maybe only an hour old but in other places it was older…. from the day before he decided.

He looked around and noticed her clothes again but this time he thought about that even if she had taken her clothes off why hadn't she put them back on before she left? He walked slowly toward them before he lifted her jeans to feel them. They were slightly stiff and now that he was close and touching them he could smell other things besides her…. asphalt and ….. rain water. The scents were weaker, even her scent.

He could smell Quil's clothes on the floor too. Quil's scent was strong so he must have taken them off recently…less than an hour ago… except for his pants which were stained black at the bottom and looked stiff like Claire's clothes. He dropped her jeans and crouched down to look at Quil's dickies. They had the same smell of rain and asphalt but Quil's own scent was much stronger on them then Claire's had been on hers. He had taken them off after she had… hours later…. Not at the same time.

He stood back up and looked at the sheets again, this time noticing the scent of other materials mixed in with the scent of Claire's skin, each material seemed to have the same scent from Quil's laundry detergent. He looked around seeing the bigger picture for the first time.

Other than the clothing and Claire's scent here there was no evidence indicating sex at all. His heart beat slowed down significantly as he thought it. His shaking was decreasing, and the heat was almost gone when Quil asked,

"You got it yet?"

"I got it." Bennett replied confidently.

"'Kay, so what happened?" Quil tested him.

"She was here last night… she was wet…. so she changed into… your clothes…she slept in your bed with you and then she left…and then you took your clothes off to shower" He recited, confident in his assessment.

"How long ago did she leave?" Quil asked.

Bennett closed his eyes and inhaled again focusing on trying to narrow it down to her most recent scents.

"About an hour ago…." He said but slightly less confidently. He opened his eyes to see Quil nodding at him.

"Anything else?" Quil asked him.

"Like what?" Bennett responded with slight disbelieve. He had picked up on _everything_.

"Like how we slept on top of the bed until early this morning," Quil told him as he went to the bed and threw the sheet and blanket that had been twisted up towards the foot of it, over the bed so that Bennett was suddenly hit with her slightly older scent again, this time mixed with her hair which must have been wet because it smelled heavily of rain. "That was when I took off my pants." Quil continued as he gestured towards the pants that Bennett had dropped back on the floor. "Or that she brushed her teeth in the bathroom after having coffee, and that we ate Chinese food before we fell asleep."

Maybe he hadn't picked up _everything_ after all. He had noticed the mug in the sink but disregarded it as Quil's. Now that he had had pointed it out he noticed a second mug on the table that had to have been his. He hadn't even picked up that the Chinese was recent or that there were multiple pairs of used chopsticks thrown in the box. And he hadn't noticed that she had even gone in the bathroom at all.

"Not bad though, especially for how worked up you were." Quil told him while still staring at him. He seemed to be evaluating him to see if he had really gotten his control back or not. "You just need to work on focusing and trusting your other senses, things aren't always what they look like."

Bennett just nodded, frustrated that he had missed so many details because he couldn't get past Claire's scent and what he had thought he was seeing.

"You good?" Quil asked him while still evaluating him.

"Fine." Bennett responded a little curtly.

"How's the head?" Quil asked concerned.

"It hurts..." Bennett admitted before he sat on the edge of Quil's bed and tried not to think about how Claire had been sleeping there just hours before.

"Well most wolves don't have it quite so complicated trying to refine their senses." Quil told him with a clap on the shoulder.

"What do you mean?" he asked confused. Leah kept telling him that they had all struggled before they got to the point where they were now.

"None of the other wolves were in love with Claire." Quil explained simply with a shrug. "This whole fighting against someone else's imprint thing has never even happened before."

Bennett just raised his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side to look up at Quil before he said, "Yeah I know….. and it sucks."

Quil just slapped his shoulder again without saying anything before he went back into the bathroom and Bennett could hear him start shaving.

"So, does this mean I can go back to school now?" Bennett asked in the same register knowing that Quil could hear him.

"Uh…. We'll see…" was Quil's non-committal response.

Bennett groaned and said, "Come on, you can't babysit me forever. Let me move on with my life, already!"

"Yeah and how is that moving on going to go when you go back to sitting right next to Claire in class everyday?" Quil responded from the bathroom.

"It'll be fine. I can control my reactions." Bennett said confidently quickly anticipating this argument.

"Oh really?" Quil asked skeptically.

"Yes really!" Bennett said starting to get pissed. "I haven't ever phase unintentionally other than the first time. I saw Claire on Monday and I didn't do anything stupid. I didn't lose my shit now, did I!?"

He heard Quil turn off the sink before he came around the corner to look out the open door. He still had about a third of his beard left to shave off and his face still had shaving cream all over it.

"Okay first off, kid, you didn't lose your shit just now because _I_ talked you through it, not because you have some sort of great self-control. What if I hadn't been here and you had just come in by yourself and seen this?" he gestured to both of their clothes and the bed. Bennett didn't want to admit it to Quil, but it was pretty hard for him to deny that he wouldn't have indeed lost his shit if that had been the case. "Second, you haven't ever even phased by yourself without a babysitter so maybe you aren't as badass as you think. And third of all, you practically gave yourself an aneurism on Monday when you saw Claire. So, don't act like you can handle being around her."

He rolled his eyes at him like he was annoying before he went back in the bathroom and started the sink again. Bennett was annoyed that he couldn't argue those points more.

"How do you know I can't phase without a babysitter if you never leave me alone? And if you think I can't handle being around Claire then let me prove it." He argued, frustrated that everyone kept acting like he couldn't be trusted.

"Prove it how?" Quil asked skeptically while completely ignoring his comment about the babysitters.

"Take me to see her." Bennett said simply.

Quil actually laughed before he said, "Yeah, no way in hell."

"I'm serious. Take me to see her and I'll prove that I can handle it. I'm going to have to see her again eventually… isn't it better to do it in a controlled setting instead of in front of our entire high school?" Bennett argued quickly.

"Has it ever occurred to you, Bennett, that Claire might not want to see _you_? Or is your pain the only thing that matters?" Quil asked as he finished shaving and turned off the sink.

Claire was in pain? - _Nope! Not Yours!_ Wolf-voice insisted as the wall slapped back down.

"We'll ask her. Ask her if she'll see me. I'm sure she doesn't want to wait until we have to spend half of everyday sitting next to each other in class."

Bennett knew Claire well enough to know that she would never refuse to see him under the circumstances, he just needed to provoke Quil into leaving it up to her and then he could finally start gaining some of his independence back.

"I don't have to ask her, I know she doesn't want to see you." Quil answered simply as he walked out of the bathroom.

The idea that Claire didn't want to see him hit him with a pang before the wall slammed down in his mind in response.

"So, you speak for Claire now?" Bennett asked faking sincerity and thinking that getting Quil on board was essential, he just needed to play the cards Quil gave him.

It was already incredibly apparent to Bennett that because of Quil's laid back nature there wasn't very much that got to him, the gaping exception to that being anything that had to do with Claire.

"I didn't say that!" Quil said instantly defensive.

"So, then ask _her,_ don't make the decision for her. Look it'll be good for all of us. We can both get some closure, I can prove that I can see her without my brain freaking melting, and you can be there to watch it all go down." Bennett reasoned.

He could already see that Quil had gone from completely set against, to on the fence. After seeing him hesitate for just a second Bennett quickly said,

"Come on, man, what are you afraid of? It's not like I can ask her to ditch you and run away with me."

Quil shot him an annoyed look but said calmly, "And what if you lose your shit again?"

"I won't!" he said instantly defensive. Quil just gave him a skeptical look and he quickly backtracked.

"Look _NOTHING_ is going to happen, you'll be there too, Quil. If it really is somehow too much for me I can always just leave, besides you need to take her stuff back to her anyways, right? We'll just stop by on the way to the gym and then go. It'll be less than five minutes and then maybe you can finally get off my back and let me go back to living my life."

Quil rolled his eyes but said, "Fine. I'll call her but if she doesn't want to see you than I don't want to hear about it again, got it?"

Bennett rolled his eyes and said confidently, "She'll want to see me." knowing he had already won the battle.

Quil suddenly looked up from his phone that he had pulled out and gave Bennett a deadly look that nearly stopped his heart (not that he'd ever admit it) before he said,

"Do me a favor; don't act like you know Claire better than I do."

Bennett just threw up his hands in both defense and surrender. If he was being honest there was no way he wanted to cross Quil, not only could he make life hell for him, but he could take him down in all of two seconds and had already proved it the one-time Bennett had gotten out of line. Bennett was actually relieved that Quil's reaction when he had come in was to settle him down and not to show him who was boss and who Claire really belong to.

Quil quickly hit a contact on his phone and but it to his ear. It didn't even ring before Bennett heard Claire's voice picking up her voicemail.

" _Hi, this is Claire! Sorry I miss-"_

"Damn." said Quil as he hung up without leaving a message. "Her phone must have died after last night. She's not answering my texts either."

The joker in Bennett secretly wanted to point out that she might just be avoiding him but he wasn't _that_ stupid and had no desire to aggravate Quil more than he already (unintentionally) had.

"Alright, we'll swing by and drop off her stuff but only because I want to check in on her. But I swear, Bennett, if you make things harder between me and Claire, I'll…." Quil began threateningly before Bennett threw up his hands again and said sincerely,

"Best behavior! Wolf's honor or whatever!"

Quil just rolled his eyes and put on a pair of gym shorts before grabbing his keys off his nightstand. They were both only wearing gym shorts even though it was only about thirty degrees outside. When Bennett followed him out and into his car he was surprised to find a pair of Claire's shoes on the floor of the passenger's side.

"Wow, she really leaves her crap all over your place..." He remarked good-naturedly.

"Just shut up." Quil huffed, he seemed agitated.

As they pulled up to Claire's house a minute later Quil turned off the car before he turned to Bennett and said,

"Just…... don't be an ass."

"When have I ever been an ass!?" He instantly defended thinking that was uncalled for, especially when it came to Claire.

"Well, don't start now." Quil said firmly before he got out.

As Bennett followed him up the walk he suddenly felt nervous for the first time. He had been so focused on getting what he wanted (to prove he could handle being around Claire and thus other people in general) he hadn't stopped to consider what he would actually do if he got it.

 _She's just a person, not significant to you in anyway. Just be cool._ He thought to himself and was surprised when he wasn't met by his usual wall. Maybe he really was starting to accept things….

Quil gave him a significant warning look with his hand on the door before he opened in and stepped inside, calling loud enough for her to hear,

"Claire?"

"I thought you weren't coming over until later?" Bennett heard Claire responds at the same moment he caught a glimpse of her.

She was in the kitchen with her back to them, standing in front of the table as she leaned forward to look at her laptop. She was wearing some sort of pink tank top with her hair wet and hanging all the way down her back where it was dripping onto her gray cotton panties leaving a dark circle on the back of her ass. That was all she was wearing. No pants. Just panties and the baby pink tank top.

Bennett immediately thought about how he had seen her in some pretty hot outfits (like her cheerleading uniform) but damn, she looked hot right there. She looked like some sort of Victoria's Secret ad leaning forward with half her ass hanging out of her underwear.

He was instantly hit with his usual wall of denial but was surprised to find it didn't feel nearly as thick or hit nearly as hard as it usually did. Hmm… his physical reactions must not be nearly as hard to shut down as his emotional ones he thought to himself as Quil slammed a hand on his chest, pushing him back out as he held the door to his back so that he was completely cutting off Bennett's access to Claire.

"Yeah… You're waiting in the car." He told him immediately.

"But you said-" Bennett started calmly but Quil interrupted,

"Bennett, there is no way in hell you are going in there. Go wait in the car." He finished with the authority in his voice that indicated that if they were in their other form he wouldn't even have a choice but to obey.

Bennett just rolled his eyes as he headed back down the walk to wait by the car as he heard Claire's confused voice ask,

"Quil?"

He didn't see why he couldn't just wait until Claire put some clothes on… he thought it to himself as he walked toward the car.

He heard Quil quickly walk back in before he shut the door behind him cutting Bennett out and asked,

"What the hell, Claire!? Where are your clothes?" He sounded desperate instead of angry.

"Everything is in the dryer. I washed everything that was comfortable before I got in the shower…. I thought you said you would call _before_ you came over like this." Claire's voice responded calmly.

"I _did_!" Quil seemed to respond, exasperated, "Your phone is going straight to voicemail. I wanted to check in on you to make sure you knew, and that you were okay here by yourself."

"It must have died... I think it's still in my backpack… sorry…Thanks for checking in on me…"

He could hear what sounded like maybe Claire touching him some place…maybe his arm or his chest…before he heard the heavy tread that must have been Quil taking a step back.

"What's wrong?" She asked clearly confused and offended by his reaction.

"What's wrong!? Claire! You aren't even wearing clothes!" Quil responded definitely sounding a little desperate.

"I didn't think you were just going to show up! Besides you used to see me like this all the time and it never bothered you before yesterday!" She said a little defensively.

 _What happened yesterday!?_ Bennett immediately thought to himself before he heard Quil say,

"Claire, honey, you're killing me here! …. Besides, I didn't exactly come alone."

"You didn't come…." He heard Claire say softly before she gave a huge gasp and said, "You brought _BENNETT_!?" like he might be the devil incarnate. "He can't be here, Quil! I'm not even wearing any clothes!"

 _Damn. Quil was right, that sucks. Claire doesn't want to see me._ He thought to himself

"I _KNOW_! That's the problem!" Quil said emphatically.

He heard Claire huff and it sounded like she started pacing back and forth across the kitchen floor.

"Why would you even bring him over here?" She asked confused.

"He wants to see you." He told her, and he heard Claire quickly respond with a disbelieving, " _Why!?_ "

He knew she must be thinking of how disastrous it had been on Monday when they had unintentionally run into each other.

"He thinks if he can prove that he can handle being around you then I'll let him back into society or something." Quil explained to her.

Bennett could still hear Claire pacing while she must be processing what he had told her.

"Okay…. Well should I give him a chance? ….To prove he can handle it!" She finished quickly like she was afraid Quil would react to the idea of her giving him a chance.

"Not like that!" Quil snapped at her.

 _Damn, for 'meant-to-be' those two sure don't have their shit together._

He was just thinking about how he and Claire had seemed much more harmonious as a couple when he was hit with a huge wall so hard that it knocked the wind out of him.

"Well obviously not like _this_ , Quil!" She snapped back, frustrated. "I'm going to get dressed!"

It took Bennett a second to figure out what was happening since she had stopped pacing, but he realized that Quil must have moved forward to hug her and that was the heavier step he had heard, when he heard Quil say softly,

"I'm sorry… You just caught me off guard again."

 _Again!?_ Bennett question to himself what that could mean.

It was silent while it sounded like Quil stroked her hair. Bennett was impressing himself now with how good his surveillance skills were getting. Claire sniffed before she said,

"So, do you think he can? Handle it, I mean. If this gives him more freedom than we should do it. Whatever makes this easier on him."

He smiled to himself while thinking that she obviously still cared enough about him to try make things easier for him, as if that was possible. He had to rub his head as the wall slammed down into its familiar place.

"Claire, even if he _can_ handle it, I don't think _I_ can handle him being in the same room as you after that." Quil answered honestly.

"What do you mean…." She asked confused before she gave another huge gasp and asked, "Did he see me!?"

It was silent for a second before Quil said, "Naw… probably not."

She obviously didn't buy it because she groaned dramatically and then her voice became muffled like she was speaking into his shirtless chest as she said, "Great! First, yesterday the whole school gets to see me in my bra and now this!"

 _What the hell HAPPENED yesterday!?_

Bennett had to force himself to focus again and heard what sounded like Quil rubbing her, but he couldn't be sure where… Maybe her arms or back.

"Forget about Bennett for a second…"

He heard Claire scoff in response. Was Claire having trouble forgetting about him? He wondered about it in surprise before, _She belongs to Quil. I know!_ he quickly thought with an eye-roll to avoid the wall again.

"…How are you doing? How was your shower?" Quil continued.

"It was fine," she said in response, "I cut myself shaving again… it sucks being stuck with just my left hand."

Bennett felt a familiar pang of guilt for the accident that had left her with a broken right arm.

"Ooh yeah, that doesn't look fun. Do you want me to put a bandage on that?"

It was odd because Bennett hadn't noticed any scrapes or cuts on her exposed legs…but then again, he hadn't been looking at her legs either…

"Thanks, then I don't have to decide between having to wait for my mom when she gets home at seven or having the world's most awkward interaction with my dad when he gets home with Jamie."

 _Where is this cut at exactly?_ Bennett thought to himself while managing to dodge around the wall before it hit.

He heard Quil's laugh in response while it sounded like he was digging through a drawer in the kitchen.

"Okay here. Sit up here." Quil's voice said and then it sounded like he lifted Claire up onto the counter, or at least that's what Bennett imagined, he couldn't be sure.

"Does that sting?" he asked her, so he must be cleaning it with something.

"No." she whispered in a strangely soft voice that suddenly made Bennett's heart start pounding... why was she talking like that!?

 _I know! She doesn't belong with me!_ He yelled in his head preempting his wolf-voice in response to his own reaction.

"'Kay, there you go." Quil said in an equally soft voice.

Bennett could practically feel the tension burning between them from where he was outside leaning against Quil's car.

"Thanks." She whispered so quietly Bennett almost didn't pick it up.

It was quiet for a few moments before he heard Claire say, "Quil…" it almost sounded like a mix between a question and a warning.

"I know…." He breathed out quietly. "...I'm trying…."

"Still messing with this head, Quil Quiluete?" she asked him softly and Bennett was definitely uncomfortable with hearing her refer to him in such an intimate way. He didn't even think she had ever even had a nickname for him when they were together.

Quil seemed to breath out a large sigh before he said simply, "You have no idea."

She was silent but for some reason Bennett got the distinct impression she was rubbing her hand through his hair.

"I like seeing your face again." She told him quietly but brightly like she wanted to make him feel better.

Bennett was definitely starting to feel sick, both from what he was hearing and from the head ache that the denial to his reactions was causing.

"Thanks, Nino." Quil said before he laughed at her reaction.

"Ech." said Bennett.

He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but it was still so painful for him to hear the way they were so cutesy with their little nicknames and all of their casual touching that was so frequent that Bennett could hear it happening from this far away.

"What is it?" Claire asked Quil.

"Nothing, Bennett is just waiting for me is all." Quil answered.

Quil must have heard him, which made sense since he was hearing everything going on in there.

"Go then. I'll see you later." She assured him quickly.

Quil breathed out, clearly frustrated. Bennett was betting that he had more he wanted to say to her but didn't want to, now that he knew he could hear him too.

"Yes, you'll definitely see me later."

And then he kissed her quickly, but Bennett couldn't be sure where…he was just praying she hadn't already moved onto to someone else kissing her soft lips- _WALL_ …

He could hear Quil walking toward the door and then Claire ask softly as an afterthought,

"Hey, did you find my sling at your place? I left it there this morning, and my shoulder's getting sore."

He heard Quil stop and turn back to her before he said in a voice so tender that Bennett felt for the first time that he was truly intruding with his eavesdropping and that he might hear something that was too painful for him to want to listen to.

"I'm sorry. I'll find it and bring it by in a couple hours, okay?" it sounded like he was rubbing her shoulder.

"Ech!" Bennett said again, this time as a reminder that he was still there waiting and unintentionally intruding on their intimate moments, before he would have to hear any more.

 _I mean seriously even if I didn't have a history with Claire this would be hard to watch._

Bennettsurprisedhimself by being able to think objectively about it.

Quil was so in love with her it was almost painful to see. She either refused to see it or was the cruelest woman Bennett had ever met, and he knew that Claire wasn't cruel.

For the first time Bennett stopped to see the entire crappy situation they were all in, from Quil's perspective. _He_ was the thing in the way. Claire's feelings for him must be what was holding her back from the wolf she was _supposed_ to be with. Man, imprinting really was a bitch. His respect for Quil grew even more when he considered how he had never taken his frustration about the situation out on Bennett and instead had listened to him whine about how it sucked for him, while even occasionally trying to give him advice or make him feel better about it.

He didn't hear anything else before Quil came out of the house and shut the front door before Bennett could catch another glimpse of Claire (not that he needed it, he was in enough pain every time he thought of her as it was).

"What happened to _in_ the car?" Quil immediately said clearly not happy with his eavesdropping.

"It's locked." He responded unfazed.

He hadn't even checked, he'd been so distracted by what he was hearing he hadn't paid any attention to what _he_ was doing.

"Funny. It's not now." Quil said opening the door for him and pushing him in the car.

He complied without saying anything, not wanting to upset Quil any farther.

Quil got in and started it like he was suddenly in a hurry now.

"Well, that was uncomfortable..." Bennett threw out into the slightly awkward silence, hoping to make Quil less uncomfortable knowing he had intruded so much.

"Then don't listen if it hurts, kid." He said like Bennett was an idiot.

"No… I meant uncomfortable for you." He explained quickly even though it had definitely been uncomfortable to overhear.

"What are you….. shut up…" Quil said clearly annoyed.

"You know you're really going to need to quit calling me _kid_." Bennett told him good-naturedly.

Quil scoffed and gave him a look that said that wasn't going to happen.

"Okay, _Jail-bait_. You know that I'm almost eighteen months older than Claire, right? If I'm a kid what does that make her?" Teasingly giving Quil a new nickname to replace the one in his mind that he had heard Claire call him, and surprising himself that he had come to accept the idea of Claire with Quil enough to make a joke about it.

He was exaggerating to make a point since he was only fifteen months older than Claire, but he figured if he could use Quil's feelings for Claire to help earn some respect in the pack than he wasn't above doing it. And constantly being referred to as _the kid_ was definitely something he'd be willing to manipulate Quil to get away from.

"Okay! That's enough. I told you I haven't touched her." Quil said obviously even more annoyed at the commentary about their age difference.

"Don't act like that was your choice. Psh, I've literally been slapped with that girl's boundaries too, remember?" he said trying to be sympathetic while subconsciously rubbing the side of his face that she had slapped so hard it had bruised.

"That's great, Bennett, thanks. Your observations about my relationship with Claire are very helpful." He said irritably.

"Look man, I'm just saying I know exactly what you're going through." Bennett said thinking that if anyone understood how hard it was to control themselves around Claire it was him.

"No, you don't!" Quil said sharply as he pulled up in front of the gym and parked the car before he turned to look at Bennett sitting next to him. "You have no idea how I feel about Claire! Just because you cared about her doesn't mean you know her! So, just shut up and focus on your own shit and don't try to Dr. Phil a relationship you had no business being apart of in the first place!"

 _Whoa!_ Bennett thought since he had clearly hit a nerve.

"Okay, man." Bennett said holding his hands up in a surrender and backing off before getting out of the car.

If Quil didn't find his support helpful or wanted then he'd stay out of it, it was less painful for him that way anyway.

They were almost to the door of the gym when he looked at Quil, who was no longer any taller than he was, and couldn't stop himself from saying emphatically,

"But for the record, I one hundred percent know what it feels like to be in love with Claire. The only difference between you and I is that _you're_ the one that actually has a future with her."

He thought for a second that Quil might hit him but then Quil blew out a huge breath and clapped him on the back (and hard!) before he said,

"Come on, let's see who can do the most sets."

"Sets of what?" Bennett asked thinking he could probably take him at bench press even if Quil was that ripped.

"Everything." Quil said simply.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

 **Quil:**

Quil was relieved when he finally dropped Bennett off at his grandparent's house two and a half hours later. He was a good kid and normally Quil wouldn't mind him hanging around so that he could keep an eye on him except that anytime Quil was with Bennett meant that that was time he couldn't be around Claire.

…Claire.

That girl was killing him in every way. He felt like she had taken all his major organs; his heart, his lungs, even his brain and thrown them in a bowl to scramble up together before putting them back so that everything inside him seemed completely thrown off.

Quil had known that his feelings for her were growing but it wasn't until Bennett had pointed it out to him that he realized he was actually in love with her.

All he could ever think about anymore was their potential future together. Every time he wanted to kiss her and couldn't, he would just think about a future when he could. Every time he saw too much of her soft skin and only wanted to see more he would just think of that future, every time she snuggled up next to him and he wanted her as a permanent fixture he would just think about when. But that moment when Bennett compared their situations and had told him that he understood exactly what Quil was going through was the moment that Quil realized he was in trouble.

He was in love with Claire. Not just loved her. Not just needed her in his life. He was in love with her. He had no idea when that had even happened. Four months ago, she had been the most important thing in his life, but he certainly wasn't losing his shit because some random nurse had the hots for her and now…. It had really snuck up on him and the thing that terrified him was that he had no idea what to do about it.

He couldn't do _anything_ about it. Claire might be perfect in almost every way but one glaring inescapable flaw was the fact that she was still sixteen. Bennett hadn't been wrong when he had affectionately dubbed Quil 'Jail-bait' as a new name. He couldn't go anywhere near her and he knew it, but he also knew there was no way he could stay away from her.

Quil shook his head trying to clear it of all his thoughts as he drove back home to find Claire's clothes he had forgotten along with her sling. He was already feeling a pull growing stronger in his gut that he needed to get back to her. He ran inside and took the world's faster shower. He had barely broken a sweat at the gym but had found it hilarious to see Bennett busting his ass trying to keep up with him. He got out quickly and wanted to just get dressed and head over to see Claire as soon as possible, she had already texted him that she was done working on her homework and he was feeling especially rushed to go see her, but he was starving since he hadn't eaten anything all day and it was now 3:30 pm. He hurriedly threw some protein powder in a blender with a banana and some ice. He barely waited for it to blend together and there were still ice chunks in it when he poured the whole thing in a cup and ran out the door chugging it down as he went. Normally, there was no way that would be enough food for him but he was so eager to get to Claire's that he figured as long as he wasn't going to pass out he would just eat later.

He blew out a sigh of relief as he pulled up in front of her house, knowing that she was now only feet away from him. He was able to finally relax again as he hurried up the walk to the front door while still finishing his protein shake, he opened the door and instantly smiled when he saw Claire in the kitchen, this time fully clothed. She was wearing leggings and a large white and gray striped sweater over the same pink camisole she had been wearing when he had come over before.

Quil had been surprised when Claire had unintentionally pointed out to him that the only thing that had changed in their situation was his feelings for her. He had come in with Bennett to find her looking like some sort of archaic idea of a sorority house in just her panties and a pink camisole. She wasn't even wearing a bra under it (probably because she couldn't put it on by herself) and it was _apparent_. He had been with her when she had bought what she told him was a camisole explaining that since it had some sort of built in bra contraption it was what she liked to use to sleep in, Quil had no idea if it was providing any support at all but it definitely wasn't providing any sort of coverage…

The reactions he was having because of it were probably the strongest reactions he had had to her yet, not to mention the frustration that had also been mixed in. Frustration that she had to look like that the one time out of a million when he came over and happened to have Claire's ex-boyfriend with him. Frustration at her for looking so tempting when she had to know how much he would struggle with it. The ironic part had been when Claire had pointed out that he had been used to seeing her dressed like that all the time, and until the day before, had never had a reaction to it.

He had been about to argue it but then had had a sudden flash of memory of her jumping around on his bed while he bent down to kill a spider from a few months before. She had been wearing either the exact thing she was wearing or else remarkably close and he hadn't thought anything of it at the time. Was _he_ really the only thing that had changed?

Whatever the cause of his reactions, he was grateful she was now wearing a baggy sweater when he walked through the door and said, "Hi!" relieved to be with her again. She looked up and her whole face lit up when she saw him, doing things to his heart he wasn't prepared for.

"There you are! I thought you had drown in the shower! I need your help. You're right, I can't do all of this with just my left hand!" she said the second she saw him.

He smiled, thinking that she was just about the cutest thing he had ever seen as he saw the whole picture of her in the kitchen with about a million bowls around her and even more ingredients.

"Well, I'm here with both of my hands!" he told her as he walked into the kitchen and had to immediately resist the urge to lean in and kiss her hello.

"What's that?" she asked gesturing toward the bundle of clothes in his hand.

"You're clothes you left at my house and B…. Your sling!" he finished with a flurry. He had barely caught himself from saying that Bennett had _not_ been happy when he found them at his place earlier but thought better of it the microsecond before he said it.

"Thanks! My shoulder is killing me! Here." She said, not noticing anything as she took the clothes from his hand and tossed them towards the stairs where they fell pathetically five feet away from her. Quil laughed and said,

"That was pretty sad… you might need to start lifting some weights there."

"Hey, that was just my left arm! You just wait until I get this cast off! I'm going to toss everything all the time just to prove I can!" she insisted teasingly as she took the sling from him and started awkwardly shrugging back into it.

Quil quickly helped her slide into it before softly rubbing out her shoulder that had been sore from carrying around her casted arm at a ninety degree angle all day.

"Thanks." She sighed softly with her eyes closed. "That feels _so_ nice."

She had started to lean into him and he quickly had to stop and take a stop back before she got any closer. He didn't even think she had been aware she was doing it, but she had bent her neck and head against his hand on her shoulder and then started to lean in toward his chest with her eyes closed as she gave a small relieved sigh that just so happened to be incredibly sexy.

He quickly clapped his hands together and tried to distract himself from her by saying,

"Okay, so what do you need me to do!?"

"Separate the egg yolks from the whites in that bowl!" she answered quickly not noticing anything odd in their quick exchange which Quil found in itself odd.

"Okay… I have no idea how to do that." He immediately answered.

She laughed and said,

"I'll talk you through it, it's easy. But we should hurry because Jamie is going to be home in about fifteen minutes and then he'll want to help, and it will take about three times as long to get done."

Quil was incredibly relieved to hear that he only had fifteen more minutes of being alone with Claire before Jamie's five-year-old presence would be there to shatter the intensely powerful bubble she seemed to constantly pull him into. It was exhausting always fighting against it. He was actually starting to miss the days when he hadn't physically noticed Claire at all. It had been a lot easier to be casual around her.

He had been working with Claire standing right next to him, telling him each step of the recipe that she couldn't do with just her left hand when he finally realized she was being unusually quiet. He had been so focused on not noticing how close she was standing to him and how much he wanted to pull her in closer that he hadn't noticed how preoccupied she was.

"You okay?" he asked curiously, looking down at her for the first time.

She bit her lip and nodded her head while she said in a soft voice,

"Yeah, fine."

Quil probably would have been frustrated by her continual lip biting if he hadn't been so concerned about her. They hadn't talked about Bennett since he had brought him over just to give him a full view of Claire less than fully clothed.

"Hey, I'm sorry I brought Bennett over here without giving you any heads up. That was my bad and I'm sorry if it upset you." He told her quickly but sincerely, hoping to make her feel better and smooth things over.

"No, it's not that. That was fine …well, not great that he saw me in my underwear, but you know, whatcha' gonna do..." She said shaking her head and seeming unperturbed about the situation.

"Well, if it's not that then what's bothering you?" he asked as she pulled the bowl of batter out of his hand and tried to hold it between her chest and her cast so that she could stir it with her left hand.

He was now worried it was some new aspect of _their_ relationship that was upsetting her.

"It's nothing. It's stupid. Really I'm fine." She told him as he grabbed the bowl back and held it steady on the counter so that she could stir it left handed.

He was more nervous than ever now.

"Claire…" he insisted.

"It's just… there is a cheer competition my squad is competing at in Port Angeles and it started ten minutes ago… it just sucks not being there." She finally told him.

He was immediately relieved that it wasn't something he had done.

"Oh, okay. Well do you want to go? We can be there in forty-five minutes if we leave now."

She looked up at him in surprise before she laughed and said,

"We're kind of in the middle of something here!" she laughed again at his apparent spontaneity and said, "Thanks but no. I'm going to the competition this weekend just so that my squad still knows that I support them… But I don't want to go _watch_ , I want to go compete!"

"I'm sorry, Claire. That must really suck having to watch your team still competing without you." He said sympathetically.

She was quiet for a second as she seemed to be stirring the batter absentmindedly now. Quil was pretty sure they were actually supposed to have stopped mixing it at this point because the recipe said specifically not to over mix. He placed his hand on top of hers to stop her moving around the whisk. She didn't even notice. She just stopped mixing and looked up at him as she said,

"Yeah, it does really suck. I haven't actually talked about it because I know how guilty Bennett felt about the accident and didn't want to make him feel any worse. But yeah, it _really_ sucks!"

She started tearing up and dropped the whisk she was holding under Quil's hand to put her hand to her mouth as she looked down at her feet while her tears started to fall.

"Hey!" Quil said surprised as he quickly dropped the whisk too so that it landed in the batter itself and stepped up to Claire, closing the gap that he had been so careful to maintain since he got there.

He started rubbing her back and her hair while she started crying, leaning against him.

"They asked Macy to take my spot." She confessed softly into his chest and he could feel how devastated she was by the way she said it. He was surprised that she hadn't told him sooner.

"Oh, Claire!" he said sympathetically.

"I keep telling myself that there will be room for both of us on the team next year, but really what are my chances of getting back on when they have already replaced me!? She's helping them make it to regionals and I'm sitting here for eight weeks getting out of shape and losing my spot!" she explained breathlessly, pouring out all of her fears to him.

"It'll be okay, honey. Try-outs aren't until next fall, right? And if you hadn't been better than Macy to start with, than why would they have cut her and promoted you?" he reasoned with her, knowing that logic was the only thing that would make her feel better instead of just soothing empty words.

"But what if she gets better than me!? I mean she gets all of this critical time with the squad to learn and improve while I'm wasting away here!" she asked him desperately while pulling back to look up at him.

She was really working herself up and starting to freak out about this.

Quil just sighed as he quickly turned to the counter where he pushed the bowl of batter and the egg carton out of the way before he put both of his hands around Claire's waist and lifted her up so that she was sitting on the counter and could make direct eye contact with him instead of looking up. He placed both of his hands on the counter right next to her thighs so that she wouldn't have any escape from his eye contact.

"Claire," he said intensely. "You know that's not going to happen, right? You were better than Macy six months ago, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten cut when you made the team..." She nodded her head a little hesitantly "You _know_ she doesn't have more natural ability than you do. So, do you honestly think that she is somehow going to improve so much over the what, four weeks she has left to compete _IF_ the team makes it to regionals, to improve more than you have in the last six months when you were better than her to start with?"

She blew out a slightly shaky but relieved breath as she started to believe his logic that she couldn't argue with.

"Okay," she agreed softly. "But, do you _really_ think I don't need to be worried about my spot?" she asked him sincerely, obviously worried that he was trying to placate her.

"Yes! Really!" he said insistently.

She gave him a slightly skeptical look, so he said slightly exasperatedly,

"Claire, have I ever lied to you before?" _even when I should have…_ he added in his head, thinking of all the feelings of attraction he had admitted to her in the last few days.

She shook her head while still looking at him,

"At least not that I've caught you at!" She suddenly teased him.

He chuckled as he quickly reached back up to both sides of her waist and gave her a quick tickle.

"So, why I would start lying to you about something like _cheerleading_?" he reasoned with her again, knowing he needed to make sure he didn't leave any doubts in her mind to fester away at her.

He had stopped tickling her, but both of his hands were still on her waist and he felt a little like he wasn't sure how they had gotten there.

She nodded and said,

"That's true. If you're going to lie to me it had better at least be about something good."

He laughed at her logic and asked, "Like what?"

"Hmm," she thought for a second, "Not a bad hair day. If it's going crazy you need to tell me!" she warned seriously before she started giggling.

"A bad hair day!? That's all you can give me? Not to lie to you about your hair!?" he asked skeptically while laughing.

"Oh! Okay, I finally have one! You're _one_ pass to lie!" she said suddenly like she had just solved a really difficult equation in her algebra homework.

"Okay…. What is it?" he asked, curious about what it is she would ever want him to lie to her about.

She looked right into his eyes and said,

"One day when I'm _massively_ pregnant I'm going to ask you if I look good and it will be your job to _lie through your teeth_ and tell me I look amazing!"

Quil immediately started laughing. How did she come up with this stuff?

"I'm serious!" she said insistently even as she started laughing too.

"Whose baby is this that you would even be pregnant in the first place?" he asked, suddenly thinking of a pregnant seventeen-year-old Claire and wanting to snap something…. Preferably Bennett's neck even though that seemed completely irrational even to him.

"…. yours..." she said like it was obvious while giving him a confused look as to why he would assume she would ever be pregnant with anyone else's child.

"You want to have my baby?" he asked her completely surprised.

He suddenly smiled at the thought. He really liked the idea of her thinking about that. Especially since he really liked the idea of her being pregnant with _his_ child instead of someone else's.

"Well, not tomorrow… but yeah…. Who else's baby would I have?" she asked confused.

"I don't know! That's what I was concerned about!" he laughed, feeling happier than he had in a long time.

That _had_ to be a sign she wanted a serious future with him instead of anyone else and it made him borderline ecstatic.

She scoffed and slapped at his chest.

"I'm sorry!" he chuckled, "How was I supposed to know you wanted my baby!?"

"Quil!" she said sharply, looking down and clearly getting embarrassed at the thought.

He started to feel bad that he was making her self-conscious that she wanted that with him. He reigned in his exuberance enough to say,

"No! Sorry, Claire." He grew a little more serious, so he could say, "I think that sounds great if you want to have a baby one day."

"Really? You would want that?" she asked a little hesitantly while looking back up at him and he could hear the sincerity in her voice.

"Yeah, if it's with you I would." He answered back just as sincerely.

Her answering smile suddenly had his heart pounding and brought back a sudden awareness of how close they were to each other with her sitting on the counter and him standing in front of her with his hands still on her waist. It was almost identical to how they had been earlier that afternoon when he had put the bandage on the severe razor burn on the outside of her right thigh about half way between her hip and knee.

He had left his hands on both of her bare thighs and then looked up to find her looking up at him and had been almost overcome with his desire for her. Because his hands were already touching her bare skin she could feel his sudden attraction to her even though he hadn't intentionally tried to make her feel what he was feeling the way he sometimes did.

"…Quil…" she seemed to warn while looking up at him in questioning surprise.

"I know." He breathed out acknowledging his emotions that they were both feeling. He closed his eyes and put his forehead up against hers as he struggled to pull his hands off her skin. "I'm trying." He explained in a whisper.

Just like this afternoon, she sat on the counter with him in front of her and his hands on her. The moment seemed to change from surprised happiness to heated attraction with a quick intensity. He closed his eyes so that he wouldn't see her while he tried to focus his self-control enough to pull his hands off of her. He was just about to pull them away when he suddenly felt her soft fingers against his face.

He opened his eyes again to see her staring at him. No, not at him. At his lips only about six inches from her. He didn't even have room to think, he was acting on the pure instinct that pulled him to her when she started to lean in to him while still looking at his lips.

He slowly pulled her tighter to him so that her knees had to move around his waist in front of her while he pulled her closer and suddenly felt grateful that his hands were still on her waist. He dropped his attention from her gaze to look down at her slightly parted lips and immediately felt like he desperately wanted a taste of them.

He let her come almost all the way to him while he staid where he was and patiently waited for her. She leaned in until she was only about an inch away from his mouth and then stopped. She was waiting for him and he could feel her anticipation as he heard her heartbeat speed slightly. He closed his eyes to focus on the sound of it …boom badump, boom badump, boom badump….. the sound made him smile as it increased in tempo while he leaned in to slowly close the inch gape between their lips. He was still smiling when he started to brush his lips against hers as softly as he could. He parted his lips ever so slightly so that he could get just a taste of her kiss on his tongue and the front door opened, and Jamie walked in talking about Pokemon to his dad behind him.

Quil immediately dropped his hold on Claire and took a huge step back while he turned around so that he was facing away from her and her family as he ran a hand through his hair and tried to find his shattered self-control again. He heard her give a small cough like she was clearing her throat before she hopped off the counter behind him and turned to face Jamie and her dad.

"Hey! Jamie, you're just in time to help us put the cake in the oven!" she said brightly.

Quil was impressed with how casually she was passing off the moment, as if they hadn't walked in on anything unusual. He was still trying to stop his hands from shaking.

"Ooh!" Jamie said suddenly excited.

"What's the cake for?" Robert asked curiously so he must not have noticed anything.

"For Quil's birthday and….." Claire started excitedly. "He got his GED!"

She had put her hand on his arm like she was going to present him to her dad and Jamie and turned to face him for just a second as she gave him a warning look that said clearly, _you needed to pull it together before someone noticed what was happening between us_ before she turned back around with him in tow.

Quil managed to get his hands to stop shaking as Claire's dad said,

"Hey, Quil, that's great! Congrats." as he offered him his hand to shake.

"Thanks, Robert. I appreciate that!" he said in what he was relieved to hear was his normal enough voice. He was able to return the hand shake without shaking either.

"So, how old are you then?" Jamie asked clearly focusing on the birthday part.

"Um… too old..." Quil said, suddenly not wanting to admit his real age after he had almost been caught kissing Jamie's sixteen-year-old sister.

"Yeah, how old are you now, Quil? You've looked like that for so long, I've lost track of how old you really are." Robert mused casually.

Quil held a breath in as he looked questioningly down at Claire who answered him with a look that said, _just say it_ , like she couldn't understand why he wouldn't want to.

"Thirty-one now." He admitted as casually as he could.

"Really!?" Robert asked shocked, "You can't be over thirty now, can you!?"

Quil just blew out his breath as Robert continued, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense since you were seventeen when you found Claire and she was two…"

"Yup. Crazy." Quil said trying to be casual but really not wanting to have a conversation with Claire's dad about how much older he was than her.

"Hey, Jamie. Help me pour the batter into the pans and then you can watch a little tv while it bakes and Quil and I make the frosting, okay?" Claire cut in, rescuing Quil.

She must have sensed him losing his cool. He didn't even realize that his hand was wrapped around hers until she squeezed it softly, offering him comfort without looking at him so that her dad wouldn't notice their exchange. He must have grabbed her hand when he had started to get stressed.

She let go of his hand as she went over to help Jamie spray the pans and then pour the batter in. Robert must not have noticed anything off because he said,

"Well if you kids are good down here, I think I'm going to go upstairs and try to get some work done from home."

"See you later, Dad." Claire said cheerfully before he walked away.

She was helping Jamie tap the pans against the counter to even out the batter but as soon as he walked up the stairs she turned and gave Quil a wide-eyed-alarmed look that seemed to say, _What was that!?_. He had clearly played off their interrupted moment less than coolly. He just made a face and shrugged his shoulders as an apology for leaving her to flounder on her own, while not able to actually say anything in front of Jamie.

"Okay, James, take it over and Quil will help you put the first pan in the oven!" she said brightly as if nothing was off.

As Quil helped Jaime put the cake into bake he thought that Claire had either become an amazing actress or she must really not be upset about the almost-kiss/start-of-a-kiss/interrupted-right-before-it-got-good-kiss (Quil really wasn't sure how he would define it).

 _Well, she did initiate it this time._ He reasoned to himself and then suddenly smiled at the thought. _She_ had tried to kiss _him_. Maybe she wasn't as not-ready for this as she had said. He waited for her in the kitchen as she took Jaime into the adjoining family room and turned on the tv for him, finding a pre-recorded Pokemon for him to watch that she must know would keep his attention.

As she came back into the kitchen she looked at Quil with her eyes wide and slightly admonishing as he gave her a quiet shrug with a guilty smile.

"What was that!? You were so obvious!" she whispered to him as she got close enough for him to hear, forgetting that she could have whispered it outside and he still would have heard from where he was in the kitchen.

"Sorry!" he laughed quietly, "I wasn't prepared for your dad to grill me!" he explained.

"Grill you!? Quil, he asked how old you are!" she whispered back before she started laughing. "I thought _I_ was bad at deception!"

He smiled at her ribbing before he put his hand around her waist to tickle her side but just used it as an excuse to pull her back into him where he held her as he kissed the side of her head. He needed to get back at least some of the contact he had suddenly been denied from her. He was already desperately missing the taste of her lips he had been so close to getting. She rubbed her left hand up his back before she said softly,

"Come on, let's clean this up and make some frosting." 

Twenty minutes later she was standing in the corner of the kitchen watching the kitchen-aid mix together the frosting she had made with Quil's help. Quil was leaning against the counter a foot and a half away just watching her watch it when she suddenly gasped and looked up at him.

"What?" he asked surprised by her reaction.

"We should get a dog!" she said all excited.

"What?" he laughed. It had completely come out of left field.

"We should get a dog!" she repeated, "For your birthday! We should get a rescue!"

Quil laughed again wondering where on earth she had gotten this idea from.

"Am I not enough of a canine for you? You need the real thing instead of just my other form that I'm stuck in half the time anyways?"

She rolled her eyes like he was being ridiculous and said,

"Quil, I haven't even seen you as a wolf in years. Come on, it'll be fun!"

He hadn't realized it had been so long since she had seen him in his other form but when he thought back he realized she was right, it wasn't like he took her out for patrols with him.

"Where would we even keep a dog?" he asked trying to think through what she was saying.

"At your place." She said simply like it was obvious.

"So, you want _me_ to get a dog?" he asked confused.

Her face fell as if she had just realized that since they didn't live together it wouldn't be _their_ dog. She _had_ fallen asleep the night before and woken up that morning in his bed, at his place…

"Yeah, you're right… I guess I didn't think about it like that." She admitted giving up on the idea.

"Hey, we can still get a dog!" he said quickly, not liking the way she seemed disappointed. Plus, he liked the idea of her having any extra motivation to want to be around his place.

"Really!?" she asked surprised but excited again.

"Really." He affirmed, smiling at her excitement.

He would pretty much do anything if it made her happy. Especially if that something brought her closer to him.

"We can go pick one out at the shelter in Port Angeles on Saturday. You'll have to make sure I remember to feed it and everything though."

"Okay!" she said softly but clearly happy as she turned off the kitchen-aid.

She laughed and smiled up at him in a way that made him feel like he was suddenly extremely grateful that Jamie was just in the other room so that he wasn't alone with her. 

Saturday morning Quil woke up with a feeling of excitement, not for the dog that he had promised Claire they could get but because he got to see her and because he got to do something with her to make her happy. She had been incredibly excited about going to get a dog today and hadn't talked about much else since they had celebrated Quil's birthday and GED with the cake they had made on Wednesday. She had even taken to texting him at random times different pros and cons about different breeds or else send him pictures of dogs she had found on the internet. He didn't really care what they got as long as Claire was so happy.

If he was honest he didn't even know how a dog was going to respond to him. Since he wasn't technically fully human and part canine, dogs always reacted to him but almost always seemed to shut down and backed away as if they recognized a much bigger and more powerful threat and Quil wasn't sure how well that would work out with a dog that actually lived with him…

He pulled up in front of Claire's house just before ten. He had parked and was about to come in when she came running out the front door with her jacket and purse all ready to go and clearly excited.

"Hi!" she said brightly as she leaned in toward him through the window of his car door.

"What's going on?" he asked, confused about why she hadn't gotten in the car.

"Oh, I already talked to Rachel; we're going to take the Jetta!" she explained gesturing to the small white car parked in front of Quil's Camaro.

"Why?" he asked confused, "I thought you couldn't drive yet?"

"I can't. You're going to drive." She said quickly and then laughed at the look on his face.

He had no desire to drive a car that small. He would feel like he was in a nineties version of Mario Kart and he was old enough to actually know what that looked like.

"Why?" he asked still confused. "I can just drive my car."

"Your car has like no backseat. Where are we gonna put the dog?" she pointed out while laughing at his hesitation, "Besides it's supposed to be my car anyways, don't you want to check it out?"

Quil just sighed, resigned since he couldn't argue with her points. He looked regretfully back at his two door Camaro with the small back seat as he walked away to drive the Jetta.

"Come on. It's a Jetta not a Fiat! Let's go!" she said still laughing at his hesitation.

He just shook his head as he grabbed her hand and led her around to the passenger side of her car and opened the door for her as he held his hand out, palm up for the keys. She chuckled at his lack of enthusiasm while she quickly put the keys in his hand and said brightly,

"It's going to be a good day!"

She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek before she slid into the car.

He couldn't help but smile (in spite of himself) at her excitement, but he was definitely feeling less excited as he slid into the driver's seat and had his knees smashed against the steering wheel. He groaned before he found the lever and pushed the seat back as far as it would go before lowering it too. Claire just giggled at him, completely undeterred by his bad attitude toward her car.

"I should've had my dad order it in extra-large." she teased him.

"Seriously." He agreed even though he knew she was just kidding.

She chuckled at his negative reaction before she said,

"It's just a standard sedan, Quil. You're acting like I forced you into a clown car, besides don't you want to know what I'm going to be driving around in in two weeks?"

"Technically it's a compact but you're right, I'm sorry." He said sincerely, "I'm sure it'll be a great car for you as long as I can keep driving the Camaro. I'm not really made to drive such a small white-girl car."

Claire burst out laughing at his comment as he pulled out and got on the road to head to Port Angeles before she found his hand on his lap and slipped hers into it. Quil grabbed on to it, pleasantly surprised before he pulled it to his lips and kissed the back of it. He turned to gage her reaction, he had never done something that casually intimate with her before and he knew it.

She was smiling happily at him like she was completely content and Quil had to force himself to look back at the road when he would really just be happy to stare at her for the rest of his life.

"So, what kind of dog are we getting today? Did you officially decide yet?" he asked while rubbing her knuckles with his thumb.

"I don't know…. I'm waiting to see what they have." She mused next to him.

"Okay, but like size wise what are we talking here?" he probed.

"I don't know, I want to see my options…" she insisted.

"Right, but nothing small and yappy, right?" he continued.

She laughed and said, "I like the idea of a little Chihuahua that'll fit in my purse!"

She started cracking up when Quil immediately turned to give her a disgusted look.

"I agreed that we could get a dog, Claire, not a rat! Please don't emasculate me with your dog." he pleaded with her.

She was still laughing but said,

"I'm just kidding! We aren't going to get something you can't live with too! I would never do that! But I do want to see which dog I click with before I commit to wanting a specific breed or something." She finished more seriously.

Quil just smiled at how seriously she was obviously taking this, before he said, "Alright, I can respect that."

He secretly thought that getting a dog was a really good step for them and loved seeing Claire start to treat their relationship more like they were a couple instead of just best friends or family members or something else completely platonic.

It didn't take long to get to Port Angeles and the drive past quickly while Quil listened to Claire tell him about the rest of her week at school where she still had quite the reputation and her break up with Bennett was still by far the biggest news around. Quil had cleared Bennett to go back to school the next week on a probationary trial. If it didn't go well or if he caught the slightest hint that Bennett couldn't handle it than Quil had no qualms about permanently yanking the kid out and homeschooling him online or something. The good news was that because of their wolf-telepathy, Bennett knew exactly how serious Quil was about his threat and was therefore _very_ motivated to make it work out well. Quil was worried that he himself was motivated to send Bennett back to school if only to take some heat off of Claire about his disappearance and their break up but figured he could afford to give the kid a chance to at least prove himself.

Claire had just told him about her mixed feelings about her cheerleading squad being eliminated from regionals at their competition she had gone to the night before. She was sad they were out but guiltily feeling happy they hadn't done better with Macy as her replacement. Quil was just telling her to not feel guilty for being willing to fight for her position when they pulled up and Claire suddenly lost all interest in the conversation.

"We're here!" she gasped excitedly. "Quil, somewhere in there is a soul that is coming home with us forever!"

Quil laughed at her over the top dramatics and said, "It's just a dog, Claire! I spend half of my time as one and let me tell you, their souls aren't that exciting."

She dropped his hand to slap at his chest, "Don't ruin this for me! I never had a dog besides you, and I'm really excited!"

He started laughing at how her idea of having a dog was somehow akin to having him in her life as a child.

"Alright! Let's go pick out your soulmate of a dog." He told her as she started bouncing in her seat.

She gave him a huge smile before she quickly climbed out of the car.

When they walked into the shelter together they saw a woman in about her forties behind the desk in a uniform apron with the shelter's logo on it.

"Hi!" she greeted them excitedly.

"Hi!" Claire responded with just as much enthusiasm, "I called yesterday about seeing the dogs, I'm Claire and this is Quil."

Quil just turned to her and said quietly, "You called ahead?" laughing at how prepared she clearly was.

"Yeah!" she shrugged, "You have to make an appointment to see the dogs!"

Quil still thought it was funny that she had done enough research to know that much. He put his hand on the back of her head and laughed as he quickly kissed her hairline and led her forward.

"I'm Vivi." The woman behind the counter (Vivi apparently) introduced herself to them as soon as she could tell they were done with their private conversation. "I'm the one you spoke to yesterday, Claire. It's nice to meet you. Are you ready to see the dogs?"

"Definitely!" Claire said excitedly as Quil chuckled at her excitement again. It reminded him of the time they had gone to Disneyland with her family when she was seven, she was so excited to meet princess Jasmine that nothing would calm her down.

As Claire went to follow Vivi back to the kennel section behind the counter she quickly grabbed Quil's hand and dragged him behind her. When they got to the opening that led to the kennels with the dogs Quil stopped walking and let Claire's hand slide out of his. She noticed immediately and stopped to look back at him with a concerned look on her face. He gave her a smile and said,

"You go ahead, see which one you like. I'll be right there." knowing that the dogs wouldn't respond naturally to her with him around and wanting to make sure that they got something that would be okay being alone with her without him around.

He stood back for a moment as he watched Claire. She went through every cage with Vivi and listened as she told her about every single dog's personal sob story which Quil found over the top, but it just seemed to enhance Claire's experience as she bonded with what seemed to be every single dog. Quil just followed about ten feet behind her, every dog just became instantly quiet and submissive as soon as he came near it's cage. After about fifteen minutes of this pattern of Claire bonding with the dogs and Quil following behind her, she looked back at him like she was making sure he was still there.

"What do you think?" she asked him hopefully.

"I think the dogs really respond to you!" he told her honestly.

"Me!? No, you're definitely the one the dogs react to!" she said insistently.

He had been about to respond when Vivi interjected,

"No, your boyfriend's right! You definitely have a way of making the dogs comfortable… They all just seem really nervous around you." She added as an afterthought to Quil.

It was the first time that anyone had ever assumed that he was with Claire as her boyfriend instead of her parent/guardian/uncle/manny/etc. and it was a good feeling for Quil. He smiled feeling happy, especially since Claire didn't correct Vivi, she didn't really even seem to pick up on it, just like it was a completely natural assumption. She just said,

"Really!? I have a way with the dogs?" like it was the best compliment she had ever been given.

Quil smiled to himself and said, "Okay, honey. I'm gonna go wait up front since you know, I make the dogs nervous. Let me know when you pick something out."

"Okay! I won't be much longer, we've seen most of the dogs already!" she assured him quickly.

He wouldn't normally speak to her so intimately in a public setting but since Vivi already assumed they were a couple he just went with it. He'd basically been calling Claire _honey_ her entire life but he really enjoyed the assumption that he was calling her that in a romantically committed kind of way instead of a _honey_ _do you need to go potty_ type of way.

"You're fine, take your time. I need to check in with Bennett anyways so depending on what kind of trouble he's already in you'll have hours." He told her with a wink as he started backing away making the nearest cage of dogs look much more relieved.

She gave him a smile and a small wave with her left hand before quickly going back to the dogs.

Quil went to wait in the front lobby since he really did seem to be making all the dogs nervous and quickly called Collin to check in. It was the first time Collin had been assigned to Bennett babysitting duty and Quil was more than a little antsy about it, especially after Collin didn't answer. Quil rolled his eyes before he called Bennett who also didn't answer but sent him to voicemail after two rings. _That can't be a good sign._ Quil immediately thought to himself before he sent Bennett a text.

 **If you get into ANY trouble with Collin I will personally break his neck and then make sure you never set foot inside a public school again.**

He sat twitching for two minutes before his phone pinged and a text from Bennett showed up.

 **Relax, dad. We just went to see a movie.**

Quil blew out a breath knowing that seeing a movie was probably harmless enough, but not completely trusting Collin to not screw this up. After about fifteen more minutes he finally saw Claire coming out to get him with a smile on her face.

"Did you find one?" he asked her as he stood up and came to meet her.

She didn't say anything she just smiled hugely and nodded her head before she grabbed his hand and pulled him all the way down the line of dogs in cages to the last one that was empty except for Vivi with the dog that Claire had clearly picked out. She opened the door and went in quickly where she dropped Quil's hand to crouch down and put her arm around the dog who instantly started licking her face.

"Quil, this is our new dog! Butch!"

Quil just evaluated him for a second. He was definitely big. At least eighty-five pounds and kind of ugly. He was mostly brown and had some large black spots and had a face that seemed to be a bit smashed and mismatched.

"He's part Boxer and part Mastiff, that's why he's so big." Vivi explained to him.

 _That explains the face too._ Quil thought to himself. He seemed like he was good with Claire though if nothing else and if Quil was going to have a dog he would honestly rather have something big like this guy.

"Well alright then." Quil said pleasantly surprised with Claire's choice. "Butch, come here." He said in his authoritative voice as he crouched down.

He immediately came to him and then to Quil's surprise started licking his face the same way he had Claire's.

"See! I knew he was the one!" Claire said excitedly.

Quil laughed as he found himself already feeling more bonded with this dog than he had ever expected to. He had honestly thought of this project as Claire's dog that they were getting together but was surprised by how much he suddenly liked Butch too.

"I thought he wasn't trained?" Claire asked Vivi referring to his response to Quil's command.

"He's not." Vivi said looking at Quil mystified.

Claire laughed when Quil responded casually, "I just have a way with dogs."

Twenty minutes later they were already putting Butch in the backseat of the car and driving off.

"See!" Claire said obviously still excited as she kept petting Butch's head which was sticking out between the front seats. "Isn't he great!?"

"Yeah, he's alright." Quil responded sincerely before he said casually, "Sit down, Butch."

Butch immediately laid down on the floor of the back seat and Claire turned to Quil stunned and asked,

"How do you _do_ that!?"

"What?" he asked. He hadn't done anything.

"Get him to do whatever you want like that!"

Quil shrugged and said,

"He's just a good follower, and he knows I'm his Alpha."

"Well why doesn't he respond to me like that?" she asked still mystified.

Quil laughed and turned to look at her.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Claire, I can communicate with the dog because I basically am one and you want to know why you can't do the same thing?" he laughed at her.

She started giggling as they pulled into a Target parking lot to pick up some supplies for Butch.

"Wait. What are we going to do with Butch? We can't just leave him in the car, can we?"

"Naw, we'll just take him in with us." Quil told her unconcerned.

"I don't think we're supposed to bring a dog into the store." She said worried.

"If anyone asks we'll just say he's a service animal. You have a broken arm, Claire, I don't think anyone is going to question it." He assured her.

"But we don't have a leash yet." She said still worried.

"We don't need one." He said confidently. "He's a good dog, he'll do what he's told."

They got out of the car with Claire looking nervous when she opened the back door to let Butch out. He didn't do anything, he just kept laying on the floor of the car until Quil came around next to Claire and grabbed her hand before he said,

"Come on, Butch, let's go!" and he immediately hopped out of the car and walked into the store staying right next to Claire's side the entire time.

Claire seemed shocked as they went through the store and Butch did exactly what Quil would tell him too. Not that Quil ever had to. Butch was content to just follow around on Claire's right side. The only problem they had was when Claire had become very concerned when Butch growled at someone. But Quil had turned around right when he sensed Butch's tension and caught a guy that looked like he was in his early forties completely checking Claire out in her skinny jeans before Butch growled threateningly at him.

Claire had said, "Butch!" before apologizing "I'm so sorry!" to the guy but Quil had just patted Butch's head and said, "Good boy."

After picking up a giant-sized bag of dog food, a large bed, some chew toys and tennis balls, (and then because of Claire's insistence that they would need one) a leash, they made it home an hour later. Claire turned around to face Butch lying obediently on the back seat of the Jetta as they pulled up to the garage and said excitedly,

"Welcome home, buddy!" he instinctively perked up his head to look around before licking Claire's face.

She laughed and smiled at Quil before she said sincerely, "Thank you, Quil."

"You're welcome, Claire." He said softly back while he felt the now familiar pull to lean in and kiss her. For once instead of hiding from it he just embraced it and leaned all the way in to softly kiss her cheek. He let his lips linger against her and could smell her soft sweet skin and hear her breathing become more rapid before he pulled back and asked,

"You ready to show him his new home?"

She smiled softly and nodded.

"Come on." He said confidently as he forced himself out of the car before he opened the back door for Butch who obediently filed out to stand patiently next to him. It took a second for Claire to climb out and Quil could hear her softly take a few deep breaths before she opened the door, but when she did she smiled excitedly and said,

"Come on, Butch! I'll show you your new spot on Quil's bed!"

Butch immediately ran to follow her into the shop as Quil chased after them saying, "Uh! I don't think so!" 

They spent the rest of the afternoon in Quil's small apartment where he really just watched Claire interact with Butch while she got him situated. Butch really didn't seem to care where she placed his food bowl or his doggy bed but was always just happiest to follow her around and rub against her. Quil just kept smiling while watching the two of them together. They had ended up late in the evening lying on Quil's bed with Claire's head on his chest and Butch lying next to them with his head on Claire's chest over top of her cast, so she could pet him frequently while they watched reruns of nineties sitcoms.

Claire surprised Quil when she asked, "What's wrong?" while still staring at the tv and petting the dog on her chest.

He _had_ been feeling upset but hadn't thought that he had been conveying it. He just shrugged, surprised that she had noticed anything.

"What is it?" she asked intently as she turned her head to look up at his face and give him her full attention.

He sighed and said, "Nothing, I was just thinking about how I don't want to have to take you home is all."

"Is it hard for you when I leave?" she asked him in a soft voice.

"Yeah," he admitted while looking at the ceiling instead of her. "It is."

She put her hand on his cheek to stroke his face so that he would look at her before she whispered. "I'm sorry."

He just gave her a small smile and nodded his head knowing she really meant it. She kept rubbing his cheek for a moment and said, "At least you have Butch to protect you now."

He laughed and said, "At least there's that." He sighed out and braced himself before he asked, "Do you need to go now?"

She shrugged before she said softly, "It's almost eight and I promised Jamie that I'd put him to bed tonight."

She seemed sincerely sorry that she had to leave as Quil nodded his head and started to sit up on the bed.

"Up, Butch. We have to let Claire go home."

Even he could hear how sad his voice sounded. Butch jumped up obediently but with a whine as he got off Claire and hopped off the bed to go lie on his own bed in the corner.

Quil got up and then held out his hand. She put hers in it and he quickly pulled her off the bed and on her feet.

"Thanks." She muttered not meeting his eye until he did the same thing she had done to him and put his hand on her cheek and stroked it until she looked at him.

"It's not your fault you need to go home, Claire. Don't feel bad just because I can't seem to let you go, alright?"

She smiled up at him, relieved and put her hand on his, holding it to her face. He would have liked to stay that way for a moment, but he knew that if he gave in at all he would lose all of his fragile self-control, so he just said,

"Alright, let's go get my car back before I'm stuck with you're little Jetta for the rest of my life!"

She laughed as she held onto his hand that had been on her face and wrapped hers into it and followed him out. 

Quil had been dreaming about Claire (per usual) at one of her cheer competitions before she broke her arm when he woke up quickly to a banging on his door, and Butch barking at it while his phone rang.

"What the hell?" he asked, confused that so much was happening at once.

He looked at the clock to see 1:46 am, his phone quit ringing as soon as he picked it up. He had six missed calls from Bennett. Everything had been fine and normal when he had checked in with him and Collin after he had dropped Claire off, but that had been hours before. _What happened since then_!? He wondered as there was another persistent knocking on his door followed by Butch barking at the intruder.

"Quiet down, Butch." He told him softly. He still hadn't found his voice yet since he had been dead asleep, but Butch stopped barking immediately.

Quil wondered if he should find some clothes as he made his way to the door in just his boxer-briefs he had been sleeping in. He wasn't thinking clearly enough to do anything other than open the door though. When he did he found a completely naked Leah on the other side.

"Leah, what the hell?" he asked immediately as he heard Brady's howl call through the night signaling that he needed them. Brady wasn't even on patrol tonight… neither was Leah.

"Grab your clothes and your tie! We got to go!" she said insistently, referring to the leather string they all used to use to tie their clothes to their back-leg years ago when there had been a lot more going on and they had needed to be able to phase from wolf to human and back again at any time.

"What the hell is going on, Leah?" he asked again as he quickly couched down to his bottom drawer of his dresser and grabbed the pair of cutoff sweats and leather tie he hadn't grabbed in almost ten years.

"It's Collin, he's hurt, and the cops are involved. I'll explain on the way but we gotta go now!" she said so quickly he barely understood.

"Stay, Butch." He told him as he followed her out the door.

"Where are your clothes?" he asked trying to get more of the story.

"In La Push! I ditched them when I got the call and phased, we haven't needed to run with our clothes in years! Only Collin would be seen and get hit by a car at the same time." She explained running down the stairs.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop at the bottom of the steps as he said,

"Wait! Collin did _what_!?"

 ***Author's Note***

 **I really you enjoyed this chapter! I'm not going to lie it's been one of my favorites so far! I really hope you all enjoy where Quil and Claire are at emotionally because the best part for me is the journey of getting Claire and Quil to happily ever after instead of just the assumption that they will be together! Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying the progress that's being made and that it isn't moving too slowly. Hope you are all enjoying the start of a new week! Cheers!**


	20. Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

 **Claire:**

Claire went to roll over in bed from her left side to her right side but woke up a bit when her cast was in the way and she had to move her arm and shoulder around it. She breathed out and stretched her left arm over Quil's chest to feel his warmth and steady breathing as she went to fall back to sleep. It took her a second, but she suddenly realized that it was a surprise that Quil was there at all since he hadn't been with her when she fell asleep and since it had been months since he had spent the night in her bed with her.

She opened her eyes and sat up a bit to look at him. He was asleep next to her and he looked exactly the way he always did in her memories of her early childhood. He was only wearing the cut-off sweats she hadn't seen in years with a thin leather strap wrapped around his right ankle three times. He wasn't wearing a shirt, just like how he never used to when she was a kid. The only differences being that his hair was longer, it was starting to get floppy and curling out over his ears and behind his neck and his beard was already growing back since it looked like he hadn't shaved since Wednesday and it was already getting past the scratchy phase. He was dirty and smudgy all over his body and it was clear that he had had to go out tonight. Claire immediately started to worry since she knew that Collin had been on patrol and was always the most likely to get into trouble and because he was supposed to have taken Bennett out with him. From the looks of Quil something definitely must have happened.

She looked at the clock to see that it was just after six am. She wanted to know what had happened, but it looked like Quil had already been out all night and from the sound of his soft breathing she could tell he hadn't been asleep for long, in fact she would guess only twenty minutes. She knew Quil so well that just by looking at him she could tell what had happened that had led to her waking up next to him. Something had happened with the wolves that Quil had gotten called out in the middle of the night to sort out. Whatever it was had taken all night and left him exhausted and frustrated which is why he had snuck into Claire's room because he wanted to feel close to her but then he must have fallen asleep next to her.

It took only about thirty seconds to figure it all out and then decide that she would let Quil get the rest and comfort he needed instead of pestering him for explanations and then sending him on his way. It was cold in her room from the air he must have let in when he had come through the window and she was just in pajama shorts and a camisole, so she pulled the covers up tighter around her as she snuggled up into Quil's side before wrapping her left arm up and around his chest while her cast was pinned between them. He seemed to visibly relax into a deeper sleep as soon as he felt her touching him. She smiled to herself at the thought and breathed in his scent as she closed her eyes again.

He smelled a little dirty from his run but mostly he just smelled woodsy and warm, just a little bit enhanced from the way his skin usually smelled. She could even make out the tiniest hint of his Old Spice body wash he must have used when he showered the day before. She gave a little start when he flinched a little and put his right arm up to hold her arm to his chest, but he was still asleep, and he relaxed again while holding her arm tight against him, so Claire just closed her eyes and relaxed to the sound of his breathing. She felt completely at peace as she fell back to sleep next to him.

Claire woke up about three hours later when her dad came into her room saying, "Alright, it's family breakfast Sunday and I expect everyone to…..."

She opened her eyes to look at him in confusion. It wasn't until she saw his raised eyebrows and heard his calm reasonable voice saying, "What's going on here, Claire?" that she realized she was still wrapped around a sleeping Quil's shirtless body.

She sat up quickly while smacking Quil's side with her left hand as she pulled back from him. From where she was sitting her hips and legs were still touching his side, and he sleepily turned into her while wrapping one arm around her waist and the other around her back so that he was holding her close to his chest.

"Mmmm," he said groggily to her like he still wasn't quite awake, "Sorry, I must have fallen asleep after I snuck in-"

"Quil!" she cut him off warningly, trying to get his attention.

She didn't think he had even opened his eyes yet. When he heard her saying his name he quickly looked up at her face to see her nodding her head toward her father standing in the doorway. He followed her wide-eyed gesture to see her dad staring at him with his arms still wrapped around her. His eyes widen drastically before he dropped his arms from his hold around her as he sat up quickly and said,

"Robert, I swear, it's not what it looks like!"

Claire was nervous too since she had just been caught in bed with a half-naked man, but seeing as it was Quil, who had been apart of her family for as long as she could remember, and that nothing had actually happened, and that they had been caught by her father who was by far the more reasonable one of her two parents, she felt that Quil was definitely sweating more then necessary. She looked from Quil's anxious face to her dad's reasonable expression as he said,

"It looks like you fell asleep in Claire's bed after you snuck in last night."

He didn't even sound angry. Quil scratch at his beard on his neck as he said,

"Yeah… okay, that is what happened…. But, I never touched her!" he raised his hands defensively.

Claire rolled her eyes. Why would he immediately jump to sex like that? Her dad hadn't even accused them of anything.

"Okay, Quil, I think it's time that you and I had a talk. Take a moment to say good morning to Claire and then come down to my office." Her dad said before he turned around and walked back out of the room, leaving the door open as he went.

They sat on the bed, frozen in shock next to each other for a second before Quil slapped both of his hands to his face and fell back on the mattress as he said, "Oh shit!"

"You have _got_ to get it together! What is with you!? Nothing even happened!" Claire quickly insisted, confused by his extreme reaction.

He groaned as he pulled his hands back down his face and said,

"I can't help it! This whole situation makes me feel like I'm seventeen again, getting caught sneaking into a girl's bedroom!"

Claire laughed before she said, "I don't even think he's mad. You just need to relax and explain what happened is all."

He nodded his head in agreement as he blew out a huge breath and asked, "Then why am I so nervous!?" as he held up his hand to show her how much it was shaking.

"Oh!" she said sympathetically as she grabbed it in her own hand and held it to her chest.

He blew out another breath before he looked up at her for the first time and then said softly but brightly,

"Hi!"

She chuckled in response and said,

"Hi there, Stranger-in-my-bed!"

He smiled up at her from where he was lying next to her on the bed and said, "Yeah, sorry about that…"

She shrugged and said, "Really, it's my fault actually."

He just gave her a confused, skeptical look before she explained. "I woke up early this morning and found you here, but I just let you sleep instead of waking you up."

He started laughing in an exasperated sort of way,

"Claire…. How does that make any of this _your_ fault!?"

"Because, if I had woken you up then we wouldn't have gotten caught." She explained like it was obvious.

She didn't understand why he was looking at her like she was crazy.

She laughed when he reached up with his free hand that she wasn't holding against her chest and pinched her lips together so that she couldn't talk and then said,

"Trust me, this was _ALL_ my fault. So, don't try to take blame here."

She was about to respond when they were interrupted by Jaime running into the room excitedly yelling, "Claire!" he stopped when he got to the edge of the bed and noticed Quil.

"I didn't know you were here, Quil!" he said quickly.

"Yup, that's the consensus around here." Quil answered, staring up at the ceiling clearly stressed.

Claire laughed as she used her thumb to soothingly rub Quil's fingers with her thumb that was still pressed to her chest. Quil squeezed her hand in response as Jamie climbed up and over him and said,

"Claire! Dad said that you would help me make syrup but that you have to come downstairs now."

Quil groaned as Claire giggled and then said to Jamie in mostly a sigh, "Yeah, I bet he did."

"Alright! Everybody off the bed! I can't get up and find my sling until everyone moves!" she announced to both of them.

She saw Quil take a huge breath as he braced himself for what he was about to face. Claire took pity on him as she squeezed his hand again and pulled it to her lips to kiss quickly. He had been staring at the ceiling but immediately looked up at her when she kissed his hand, he smiled hugely at her before he brought his other hand up to cup around her cheek. He had been about to say something when Jamie said impatiently,

"Are you guys coming to make breakfast or not!?"

"Yup!" Quil said bracingly as he pulled himself up off the bed and shook his hands out before turning around to grab Claire's waist and lift her up from the middle of the bed, so she wouldn't have to crawl off with one arm.

"Thanks." She said as she ran a hand through her messy bed hair once he put her on her feet.

He handed her her sling off the nightstand and smiled before he said surprisingly brightly,

"Wish me luck!"

He was helping her slip into it as she said cheerfully,

"Good luck!"

He placed his hand back to her cheek to cup her face as he raised his eyebrow and cocked his head while blowing out a whistle through his teeth indicating his stress. Claire laughed at his dramatic reaction as Jamie said suspiciously,

"Um… what's going on with you two?"

Quil dropped his hand and looked at Jamie as he walked to the door and said,

"That is what I'm about to go answer to your dad."

He rubbed his hand through Jamie's hair as he walked out the door but turned and gave Claire one last wink before he left.

Claire smiled in response before she thought, _What_ IS _going on with us?_ They seemed to be caught in a limbo somewhere between together and not together, but she couldn't see anyway to break out of it. Not when she was still such a mess over her break up with Bennett and he still demanded another half decade for her to apparently mature into a grown up.

Jamie was staring after Quil looking confused when Claire decided to distract him before he could start thinking too much about what Quil had said.

"Alright, should we go wake up Rachel!?" She asked.

"Yes!" he said before sprinting into Rachel's room through their adjoining bathroom, "Rachel! Let's make breakfast!" 

Twenty minutes later Claire was downstairs with Rachel and Jamie making a big French toast and pancake breakfast. Quil was still locked in her dad's office with him and Claire was starting to get nervous. How long did it take to explain that nothing had happened and that he had no intentions of that changing for five more years?

"Where's Mom at?" Rachel asked looking at Claire from in front of the stove where she was cooking bacon.

"Um….. I don't know." She answered, distracted as she put French toast on the electric griddle that was on the countertop while she kept shooting looks at the closed French doors to her dad's office.

"She went to work already." Jamie answered from where he was standing on a stool mixing together pancake batter.

"On a Sunday?" Rachel asked as she looked up to make concerned eye contact with Claire.

Jamie just shrugged confused by the question, but Claire just bit her lip and shook her head at Rachel since they both knew that wherever their mom was she wasn't at work. Her practice wasn't even open on Sundays and she wasn't on call at the hospital today. That was when Claire heard the door to her dad's office open and immediately flipped her head to see her dad and Quil walking out together. Her dad didn't look upset at all but Quil looked a little unusually serious.

"Breakfast almost ready?" her dad asked brightly.

"Quil, I didn't know you were here." Rachel said surprised with a questioning look at Claire.

"Yup, that's the consensus around here." Jamie immediately repeated in the same tone Quil had used.

Claire enjoyed the family breakfast with everyone there except for her mom. She was feeling nervous and wanted to talk to Quil alone about whatever had happened in her dad's office but was distracted while Quil told everyone at breakfast about what had happened the night before that he had gotten called out for.

Collin had apparently been playing chicken with a car that was going 70 miles per hour. He darted across the road in front of it, had been hit and broken most of the bones in the right half of his body. The police had been called along with animal control and since it had happened on the Makah reservation instead of down in La Push it was a lot trickier trying to smooth things over with the police, not to mention trying to get Collin the help he needed from a qualified doctor. He was still in an Urgent Care on the reservation with a very confused P.A. who was taking calls and instructions from Carlisle (who was still in France) while being told to ask as few questions as he possibly could while still treating him. Jacob was already on a plane and would be there in about twenty more hours to personally try to sort through the situation his pack was now in.

It was stressful for sure and Quil was obviously frustrated with Collin as he talked about it.

"How's Bennett doing if he was with Collin when he got hit?" Rachel asked him before quickly shooting a look at Claire.

"He's fine. He actually thinks Collin is a giant idiot, so you know that he's got a good head on his shoulders." Quil told her with a shrug as Claire slipped her left hand into his under the table.

The entire story was causing her some serious stress. The thought of Collin getting half crushed and Bennett witnessing it was just awful, no matter how much of an idiot Collin could be.

"How long will it take for Collin to heal from something like this?" her dad asked, knowing how fast the wolves all healed.

Quil blew out a breath as he ran his free hand up through his hair before he used it to get more food in the middle of the table, everyone else besides Jamie had finished eating about ten minutes before but had been glued to the table listening to Quil's story.

"Less than a week. When Jake crushed the entire right side of his body he healed in about three days." Quil explained casually.

Claire stifled a gasp just remembering the awful story of Jacob getting crushed by a newborn vampire while protecting Leah. Quil squeezed her hand under the table before he let it go and used it to eat his sixth piece of French toast.

"Lucky him." Said Claire miserably, "I was hit by a bus only going twenty-five and I still have six weeks of healing."

"Bennett has sure had to witness his share of accident victims, hasn't he?" Robert remarked.

"Yeah, I think he would be happy to avoid anymore, that's for sure." Quil said with a small shiver and shaking his head seemingly to clear it from the memories of the accidents that he must have seen in Bennett's mind.

It was silent around the table for a second as Quil finally finished eating and downed his glass of orange juice and then said,

"Well I actually need to go check in on Collin, thanks for breakfast!"

"I'll walk you out." Claire told him, getting up from the table with him while everyone else said goodbye.

He checked his phone and then rolled his eyes as he walked to the door with her.

"What is it?" Claire asked him as she grabbed her jacket off the hook and fed her good arm through it.

"Nothing, just stupid pack stuff." He said as he opened the door for her. "I just got Collin's blood alcohol level back from last night."

"He was drunk!?" She asked shocked by his irresponsibility when he had been in charge of running patrol with Bennett but thinking that at least explained his stupid behavior.

"Yup and trying to get Bennett on his way too." Quil said exasperated as soon as he closed the door behind them so that her family wouldn't be able to overhear.

"Bennett was drinking too!?" She gasped surprised, Bennett was always a surprising goofball but he wasn't stupid or irresponsible….. at least he hadn't been when they were dating.

Quil just shook his head unconcerned and said,

"Not nearly enough to get drunk, with our fast metabolisms it takes about three times as much alcohol to actually become intoxicated. He won't admit it but I'm pretty sure Collin pushed it on him. I'm almost positive he took him to a strip club last night." He finished more frustrated and annoyed then ever.

"You're kidding!" Claire said rolling her eyes.

"Nope, he thought it would help Bennett get over you." He explained irritably.

"So stupid!" She said, now frustrated too.

"And of course, Bennett won't consciously admit to anything because he doesn't want to nark on Collin. Ugh, I'm so ready for Jacob to have to be the one to deal with this!" he said before blowing out a frustrated breath.

"I'm sorry, Quil." She sympathized, wishing she knew how to help.

He just rolled his eyes and shrugged in a gesture that seemed to say, _whatcha' gonna do…._.

"So, what was that about!?" she asked him intensely now that she was finally alone with him and couldn't wait any longer to ask.

"What?" he asked confused.

"You and my dad! You were in there for forever!" she explained quickly while bouncing around in front of him to stay warm, she was still just in her pajamas.

"Oh, yeah I guess so…" he said a little vaguely, looking off in the distance.

"So? What did he say!? Was he upset?" she pestered eager for details.

"No, he wasn't upset. He was pretty cool about the whole thing actually." He told her with a shrug.

"So, then what did he want!?" she asked confused about the secretive drawn out exchange between her dad and Quil.

"He just wanted to make sure that we're on the same page." He said simply while still refusing to give her any details.

"Oh… Okay…" she said sensing his hesitation to tell her about it. "Wait. That you and I are on the same page or that you and he are?"

"Um…. All of us, I think. Hey, listen, Claire, I really need to get going so that I can check in on Collin."

"Oh." She said surprised at his sudden dismissal, "Are you going straight there?"

"No, I'm going to go home and get cleaned up first." he said while still not quite looking at her.

"Okay, well I can come with you to check on him. I'll just clean up and get ready real quick while you run home."

He shook his head and blew out a breath before he finally looked at her and said, "That's okay, I'll just go by myself. Thanks though."

"You don't want me to come with you?" she asked surprised and a little hurt.

"It's not that so much as I know you'll get upset with me if you were to overhear the type of language I'm about to unload on him." He explained while putting his hands on her waist and finally touching her again for the first time since his talk with her dad.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come?" she asked doubtfully as she rubbed her hand through the grown-out hair on his hairline. She knew he had had a rough night and figured he could use the support of her being with him.

"Naw, I'll be fine," he said confidently, "Besides you don't need to see Collin that way, all smashed up like that. He'll be completely fine in a few days and then you can go see him."

She shuddered at the thought and wanted to cry just thinking of Collin all alone and broken. It was painful to think of it, even if he was stupid and misguided sometimes….

"Is someone with him or is he just at the Urgent Care all alone?" she asked, wondering if she should insist on going for Collin's sake as much as Quil's.

"No, Leah has been with him all night I think." Quil told her.

She nodded her head, glad that he had someone there with him.

"That's good."

"Yeah. So, I'll see you after?" he asked grabbing her hand that she was still absentmindedly running through his hair and holding it to his face while he used the hand still on her waist to pull her closer to him.

"Yeah, just call me." She said casually while still thinking about a smashed-up Collin.

"Claire, can you look at me for a second, so I can at least see your face once this morning before I have to go?" he asked her, quietly demanding her attention.

"Sorry." She said as she smiled at him. She leaned into him and pressed her chin against his bare chest while she looked directly up at him.

"There it is!" he teased as he let go of her wrist that he had been holding and wrapped his hand back around her, holding her more securely to himself.

"Don't forget to let Butch out!" she reminded him.

"Right," he nodded while still holding her against him. "We have a dog now…"

"Yes, we do!" she said happily, smiling at the thought.

"Alright, well I should go…" he said while not making any move to release her, in fact she thought she felt him pull her tighter to him if that was possible. She basically already had her entire body pressed up against his, not that she was complaining. Being as close to him as she could be, was where she always felt the most at home. She just laughed in response as he pulled her tightly against him slightly crushing her cast between them.

"What?" he asked.

"You sure aren't acting like you need to leave." She had to say into his chest because he was holding her so tightly.

"Sorry…. it's just last night….." he blew out a shaky breath, "… _sucked_ ….and after everything, the only thing I could think about was how much I wanted to hold you in my arms… that's why I couldn't resist coming over."

"I'm sorry." she said sympathetically, "I'm glad you came then."

She suddenly felt bad that she hadn't woken up to comfort him when he had snuck in.

He just held her for a moment, eventually moving his hand from around her waist to the back of her head where he cradled her to his chest before he sighed and said, "Alright, honey, I'll call you later." as he grabbed her hand that was against his chest and pulled it to his mouth and kissed it.

"Bye." She said a little sadly as she pulled back.

She was surprised at how depressed she was at the thought of being away from him, even for a few hours.

He gave her a small wave as he turned around and started to walk off backwards in the direction of the shop as Claire turned and went back into the house. 

It wasn't until Claire had finished helping her family clean up the breakfast they had just had, and Rachel was helping her wrap her cast so that she could shower, that she realized she had completely forgotten to tell Quil about the text she had gotten from Bennett late the night before.

 **Hey Claire. So, I've thought a lot about it and I was wondering if you would be willing to go to lunch with me tomorrow? I'm going back to school on Monday and I just think it would be better if we could see each other once before school, if you're okay with it, I'd really appreciate it, thanks.**

She had been surprised by how long and formal his message was and was sure that he had probably written at least three versions of it before he had sent it to her. She quickly responded so that he wouldn't have to sit around stressed and waiting for her to reply and said that she thought that was a good idea before she asked where he wanted to meet and at what time. He had listed one of her favorite casual Mexican places there in town and asked if one o'clock would work, she had of course agreed and now she had plans to meet Bennett in just a few hours and had completely forgotten to tell Quil about it.

She hadn't been trying to hide it at all. She had already promised that she would tell Quil the next time that she saw Bennett, but with Quil's talk with her dad that morning and with Collin's injuries it had just been completely pushed out of her mind. As soon as she remembered it she was immediately filled with nervous jumpy energy all morning as she got ready.

She still had a broken arm so there was really limited options as to what she could do with herself, but she wore her favorite black cotton dress because she thought that that might help her be more comfortable. It was chilly out, so she took a plain gray zip up hoodie that she had found in a basket of Rachel's clean laundry and put it on while pairing it with her favorite denim vest that she wore over top of it. The whole thing was comfortable and casual and helped her feel prepared for whatever this situation of going to lunch with her now ex was going to be like. She had done simple minimal makeup since the last time she had done anything bold had been her red lipstick look and it had _not_ worked out well for her, and then pinned the front of her natural-dried wavy hair back with a bobby pin before she grabbed her favorite purse and deemed herself ready to go. She went downstairs and found her dad in his office and asked him if he would give her a ride. He seemed surprised when she told him where but then said, "I think that's really cool, Claire." like he was surprised by her maturity.

"What's wrong? You nervous?" her dada asked her in the car a few minutes later as her leg seemed to bounce uncontrollably with nervous energy against the passenger seat.

"Yeah!" She readily admitted. "I have _no_ idea how to do this, Dad! How do you go back to being friends after you have _loved_ someone!?" she was really starting to freak out now as they got closer to the restaurant she was meeting him at.

"You don't." he told her honestly, and as his words hit her she quickly started to cry.

"Dad!" she cried desperately. "What am I supposed to do?"

He parked the car in front of the restaurant and turned to look at her before he said,

"Claire, your love for Bennett… it's a gift. All love is. You just have to learn how to take the love that you have for him and give it in a different way…. Love…. It's fluid. It's constant. Always growing, always changing. You'll always have this love you feel for him, but it'll change and become something other than what you're feeling now. I think the best thing you can do for him now is give him a place in your life to put that love you feel for each other…just in a different way…. Does that make sense, Claire-bear?"

She nodded but she couldn't seem to ebb the flow of her constant tears.

"I just never w-wanted my love for him to c-change…" she sobbed out brokenly.

Her dad sighed before he said,

"He was a good boyfriend to you and he was your first love. That's a powerful thing, Claire, but it's not _the only_ thing and he isn't the only boy in your life that loves you…. In fact, I would say he isn't even the boy in your life that loves you the _most_... I know that you're young now, Claire, and being forced to break up because Bennett turned into a werewolf and Quil was the one who imprinted on you seems like the worst thing in the world, but just trust me when I say that one day you will look back and be grateful that you two had to break up in a way that left you able to be friends because it truly wasn't anyone's fault…. I don't think Bennett was ever meant to be your forever… But, he was a really good just-for-now and you should try to feel the gratitude for that gift that he gave you." He finished softly as he placed his hand lovingly behind her head.

Claire nodded, grateful for her loving father's perspective.

"Thanks, Dad!" she said as she wiped her tears away, she had just seen Bennett walking through the doors into the restaurant and didn't want to make him wait for her.

"Do I have mascara everywhere?" she asked as she looked at her father.

"Just a little, right here." He said as he licked his thumb and pretended like he was about to wipe her face with it.

"EWW!" she laughed as she opened her door. "Thanks, Daddy!" she said again stepping out of the car.

"Love you, Claire-bear. Don't forget it!" He replied as he put the car in reverse.

"Love you too!" she said before she closed the door.

Her dad's words had been heavy but comforting and Claire was doing her best to feel grateful for the love she had shared with Bennett while she made her way to the restaurant where she would try to find a new place to put the love she had for him.

Two guys in their twenties were walking out as she got to the entrance and one of them held the door open for her to walk in past him so she wouldn't have to open the door with a broken arm.

"Thank you." She responded automatically with a quick smile before looking into the room and immediately seeing Bennett waiting at the table by the window she had always liked to sit at.

He had looked up at the sound of her voice even though he was all the way across the restaurant. She could see his legs bouncing against his chair just like hers had been in the car. He looked just as nervous as she felt and that made her feel oddly comforted, knowing that they were both in this situation together. She saw him stand up while he waited for her to walk to him.

"Hi!" she greeted him cautiously as soon as she was close enough.

She was surprised when he leaned in and gave her a quick hug on her left side as he said,

"Hey, Claire! How are you?" he didn't sound nervous at all.

He actually sounded happy to see her, and to her surprise she was happy to see him too, she had expected it to only ever be painful to see him again.

"I'm good." She said sincerely, "How are you? I didn't think you'd still want to do today after what happened last night."

He rolled his eyes casually as he sat back down and said, "If I stopped living my life every time Collin did something stupid I'd never get to do anything again." like he had known Collin for years instead of a week.

"That's probably true!" She laughed since she really had known Collin for years. "So, how are you really? You know…. with everything….? You look good… I mean, I can't believe how much you look like Quil now!"

She said it without thinking and instantly wanted to bite her tongue off with worry about how he would take it.

"Really!? I mean I wish I was that ripped, but yeah I guess we do kind of look alike." He quickly responded, and Claire smiled, thinking that she should have known that good-natured Bennett wouldn't be offended by the comparison.

They really did look alike now that Quil's hair was getting longer and Bennett was beefing up so much with his new-found wolf-muscles and had grown about three inches. _They could be brothers!_ Claire thought to herself before feeling stupid and remembering that they actually were.

"But yeah, no, being a wolf is actually super dope for the most part…. I mean the break-up melting my brain so much obviously sucked and being the only one who doesn't have any control over my personal thoughts _definitely_ sucks but other than that it's pretty badass really." He told her truthfully.

She laughed at his flippant and casual response thinking that she should have known he would react this way.

"Well, for the record, I'm sorry for any part I played in melting your brain..." she tried to answer lightly knowing that if they got too deep into feelings then he would probably just end up in pain again.

He actually laughed and said, "Claire, you don't need to apologize. I know that none of this was your fault."

"Well, it wasn't your fault either!" she responded quickly, thinking about what her father had said about it actually being a blessing that they were both blameless in their breakup.

"Right. So, do you think there is anyway we could just be awkward friends that may have used to love each other?" he asked in his usual goofy Bennett way.

Claire took a deep breath in before she tried to respond. Her honest answer would be no, she didn't think she would ever get to a point where she had _used_ to love him, but she knew she'd never say that so she held on to what her dad had told her and what she knew would be best for Bennett and then answered brightly,

"Of course! I'd really like that!"

He smiled, clearly relieved and then said after a moment, "You look good too by the way! You got your stitches out, I see!"

"Thanks. Yeah, I did, thank goodness!" she said lightly still trying to keep things as casual as she could manage.

"Quil said that that nurse Greg was all over you at the hospital again?" he asked her with a laugh.

"What!? Quil told you that!? When?" she asked shocked and flustered.

"When we went to the gym the day after you got them out. He asked me if I remembered him at all and I said, _'Yup, he had a thing for her the night of the accident too'_!" Bennett responded casually like it didn't bother him at all.

"Oh my goodness! He did not! I can't believe Quil told you that!" she said shocked and exasperated. "I'm going to be having some words with him about that!" she said but with a laugh.

"Speaking of him… Where is Quil?" he asked her curiously.

"He went to go check in on Collin and I think figure out how to pick Jacob up from the airport in Seattle tomorrow." She told him while he nodded his head, before she teased, "Why? Do you already miss having a babysitter?"

He chuckled and then said, "No, I'm just surprised he would let you come see me without him."

She felt a little like he had just slapped her across the face.

"Um, Quil doesn't _let_ me do anything, I choose who I see." She tried to keep her tone from being too accusatory since she didn't want to ruin the light moment they had been having.

"Right! No, Claire! I just meant because he worries so much about you, I didn't think he trusted me to be alone with you." He quickly explained, clearly understanding her offense before he asked, "What did he say when you told him?"

She just took a breath as she looked down at her cast and saw the vintage sticker that he had given to her the day after the accident.

"You didn't tell him…." He said clearly reading her reaction before he affirmed a little panicked, "You didn't tell him!?"

She looked back up immediately to make eye contact with him as she said,

"It was my decision to make, I didn't have to run it by him."

"Oh shit, Claire…. -Sorry. Oh crap, Claire!" He said, clearly remembering how she didn't like it when he would curse so casually like that.

As he spoke he leaned back against the chair and ran a hand through his hair in the way that Claire had always thought was so adorable, her heart gave a pang just seeing it.

"He's going to be so pissed at me! He's gonna think I went behind his back to see you! I'll be luckyif he _ever_ lets me go back to school now!" he continued.

"Calm down." She told him quickly. "I'll talk to him, Okay? I'll make sure he knows that _I'm_ the one who didn't tell him. I won't let him keep you from going back to school, alright?"

He seemed relieved at that but then quickly said,

"Okay, but you had better tell him soon because I have to run patrol with him tonight and if he picks it up in my head first there is a real possibility he'll snap my neck first, ask questions later!"

He was bouncing his knees again. Claire rolled her eyes before she reached over to put a calming hand on his wrist on the table and said,

"Don't worry about Quil, Bennett. I'll handle it, alright?"

He finally seemed to believe her enough to relax as he smiled at her before he said,

"Well are you ready to get some food? I'm starving _ALL_ of the time now!"

Claire laughed as she stood up to follow him into the line to get their food. She was all too familiar with a werewolf's never-ending appetite. He insisted on paying for her sweet-pork salad along with his massive order of food and she only agreed because it was too difficult to dig in her purse on her left shoulder with her left hand to argue the point much.

It was by far the most food she had ever seen him eat at one time. The more time she spent around him the more he reminded her of Quil, and yet he definitely still had all of his own quirks that made him Bennett too. He asked her all about how school had been this past week with him gone. She couldn't seem to help herself from telling him in detail how truly awful it had been. He laughed with her and was sympathetic, and she was happily surprised to find that he still had that way of making her feel better about crappy situations which then immediately made her heart hurt because of it.

"Ew. That dean is such a creep! I can't believe you just flashed him your bra though! That doesn't sound like you at all!" he responded loyally with a laugh when she had told him about stripping her shirt.

"I swear I did! I even have the RPC to prove it!" she laughed.

Her phone started to ring in her purse and she pulled it out to see Quil calling. She bit her lip before she sent it to voicemail since she didn't want to talk to him in front of Bennett. That wasn't a conversation he needed to overhear, and she didn't want to lie to Quil and not tell him who she was with so she decided to just call him back when she was done.

"Quil?" Bennett asked, quickly guessing who was calling.

"My mom. But I'll call her back." she lied quickly not wanting to get into her reasons for not taking Quil's call, she didn't think she was doing anything wrong, but she felt disloyal to Quil telling Bennett that she had rejected his call.

Her phone pinged a minute later, and she saw a text from him,

 **Hey, what are you doing? I thought you said you'd be free this afternoon?**

She blew out a breath, not wanting to avoid him and replied.

 **I'm at lunch with a friend. Talk later?**

She was distracted then when Bennett said,

"Well I'm sorry that this week sucked so much because I wasn't there. That was super sucky that Macy spread the rumor that I dumped you!"

"No, it's okay! Hopefully, it makes tomorrow easier for you! Maybe there won't be so many questions… but then again I think my outfit on Tuesday might have backfired so much that you'll actually get _more_ questions!" she replied sincerely.

"You should have just waited until I came back and then we could have both dealt with the breakup fallout, instead of taking so many hits alone!" he insisted.

"I wanted to make things as easy on you as I could." She admitted.

"Claire," he said sincerely as her reached across the table to squeeze her left hand sitting next to her now empty salad bowl, "I appreciate you looking out for me, but you really don't need to take care of me anymore. I've got this, I'll figure my issues out." He told her with a shrug before he said, "Don't try to take my share of heat too."

She was reminded of what her dad had said about giving that love that they had to each other in a different way and knew that he was in a healthier place than she was because her heart squeezed painfully at his casual contact and she kept having to swallow repeatedly to keep from tearing up at the fact that he seemed so over their relationship and ready to move on to being friends.

She just nodded her head and said as casually as she could, "Fair enough."

"You finished? I can take you home. You still can't drive yet can you?" he asked her casually, so he must not have noticed her reaction.

"Not until I get my partial cast on in two weeks." She told him thinking about how he had been the one to actually teach her how to drive a few months back.

"Cool. You should have a farewell party for that beast of a cast when you do!" he teased her as he got up and took her tray along with his to the garbage can.

She laughed and said, "Yeah, except I won't miss it at all when it's gone!" as he dumped their trash and then put their trays on top of the can.

"Well not everything is about you!" he teased as he led the way out to his mom's car parked out front.

He courteously opened the passenger door for her before he went around to the driver's side and she had to hold her breath to keep from reacting in anyway as he reached right past her and brushed against her to open her door. They joked about how much he would miss her cast when it was gone until he pulled up in front of Quil's shop.

"I thought you were taking me home?" she asked him confused.

He just gave her a skeptical look and said, "You dodging a lot of your mom's calls these days?"

She gave him her best reprimanding look as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door.

"Tell him ASAP! For my sake, I'm begging you, Claire!" he said a little dramatically.

"I'll tell him!" she cried exasperatedly as she got out of the car. "Don't be such a baby!" she mumbled to herself knowing he could hear it now.

He laughed as she closed the door before he rolled down her window and leaned toward her to say,

"Thanks for lunch, Claire. It meant a lot to see you again after… you know… everything."

"Anytime." She answered sincerely, thinking that he should know that she would always do anything for him as she raised her hand in a small wave and backed away from the car.

He just smiled at her in a way that still made her heart jump before he drove away. She took a deep breath, bracing herself before she quickly made her way into the shop and then up the stairs. 

She opened the door to Quil's apartment to find him sleeping softly on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table, watching tv with Butch lying on the sofa next to him with his head on his lap. Butch jumped up and ran to greet Claire as soon as she came in and Quil woke up when he moved.

"Hey!" he said a little groggily while rubbing his face, "How was lunch?"

"It was good!" she answered mostly truthfully as she petted Butch while he licked the makeup off her face.

"Hey, Baby-boy!" she greeted him brightly in a baby voice while he wagged his tail excitedly.

She stood up and moved in to greet Quil who had gotten off the couch and come to meet her. He leaned down to kiss her cheek but stopped apparently frozen about six inches from her. He pulled back with a slightly alarmed and shocked look on his face.

"Who did you go to lunch with?" he accused.

Claire didn't know that a question as casual as _Who did you go to lunch with?_ could be an accusation but the way Quil said it definitely made it one.

She sighed, thinking she should have known he would be able to smell Bennett on her even though she hadn't so much as hugged him… _Wait, yes I did. When I first got to the table,_ she remembered.

"It wasn't a big deal, don't freak out." She quickly assured him trying to get him to back pedal before they got into it. "How's Collin doing?"

"Screw Collin! Who did you go to lunch with, Claire!?" he said upset and apparently wanting to get into it.

"Okay, I went to lunch with Bennett, but clearly you already know that." She answered while she put her purse on the coffee table and took her shoes off as she put her hand on Quil's arm to steady herself.

"With Bennett? You went to lunch with Bennett?" he asked like he just didn't believe it.

"Yes, I went to lunch with Bennett. Why is that such a big deal?" she asked thinking he was already blowing this out of proportion.

"Oh, I dunno, Claire." He quickly said sarcastically, "Why would going on a date with your volatile ex-boyfriend and not telling me about it, _not_ be a big deal?"

He seemed to be getting more upset instead of less as he muttered,

"I'm going to kill him."

 _Wow,_ she thought after seeing his reaction, _Bennett was right. I need to turn this around._

"Okay whoa, first of all, it wasn't a date." Quil immediately scoffed like he didn't believe her. "Second, Bennett isn't volatile, he's just the same kid he's always been. The only difference is now he's a wolf and we can't be together anymore, but we have a year and a half left of high school together, so I think it would be in everyone's best interest if we learned how to be just friends, which is why we went to lunch together. Third of all, it was my fault that you didn't know about it, okay? So, back off of him. He actually thought that I was going to bring you with me." She told him hoping to shut down his little outburst before it escalated.

He seemed worked up as he picked up a football off the coffee table and started fidgeting with it in his hands and tensing like he was going to throw it as he processed what she was saying.

"If it wasn't a date then why would you hide it from me?" he asked her after a moment. She was surprised that this was the aspect he would fixate on and answered quickly,

"I _wasn't_ hiding it from you."

He paused in his tensing to throw routine and gave her a disbelieving look and she said,

"I wasn't! He texted me after you dropped me off last night and this morning I forgot to tell you with everything else that was going on, remember?"

He kept processing and messing with the football in his hands while he stared at her for a moment before he asked,

"You really weren't hiding it?"

"Really! I was going to tell you!" she insisted.

"And you would have let me come with you?" he clarified while seeming to calm down about it.

"… _Well_ …." She immediately hesitated, knowing there was no way she would have brought him with her.

He gave her another exasperated look and said, "Claire!" like he couldn't believe her.

"It was lunch with my ex-boyfriend, Quil! You don't exactly find the best way to get closure with an entourage behind you!" she justified.

He seemed to think some more about it all for another moment before he asked,

"And did you? Did you get closure?"

She thought about it for a moment as she processed the question, so she could answer honestly.

"Yeah, I guess I did." She admitted with a shrug thinking that it had still been a good experience to have lunch even if it had been painful for her at certain points. At least she had been able to get over the awkwardness of seeing him if not the pain.

"Okay, then." He said setting the football down, finally satisfied with the situation.

"You done now?" she asked him.

He nodded his confirmation as he moved a step in closer to her.

"Good! Because now it's my turn!" She ripped into him. "First off, you mister, are not in charge of me or who I see. So, if I want to see my ex-boyfriend with or without your knowledge and consent then I'm going to. You don't get to dictate the terms of the relationships in my life, Quil! You don't _let_ me do anything. Ever. Got it?"

"Whoa," he said taking a step back, obviously surprised by the intensity or her frustration with him. "I never said I do!" he responded quickly backtracking.

"Really!? Because you sure seemed upset that I didn't ask permission to go to lunch today with Bennett!" she immediately continued.

"That's different! I never said you needed my permission, but you _know_ I'm going to be worried about you spending time alone with a brand-new wolf who has yet to prove his self-control!" he defended quickly.

"We were in a public place, Quil, not alone! And I know to not make a new wolf overly upset, it's not like I'm exactly new at this…" she said still annoyed and exasperated.

"I know….." he said hesitantly. "…but you know, _I_ might like some heads-up before you go out with your ex-boyfriend." He finished more softly.

She was surprised by the way he said 'ex-boyfriend' as a title instead of just saying Bennett's name and then suddenly remembered what her dad had said about Bennett not being the boy in her life that loved her the most and her heart seemed to stutter in response.

She breathed out a sigh to let go of her frustration as she thought about how rough the last twenty-four hours had been for him; dealing with stupid wolves doing stupid things and trying to sort it all out before finding out that she, the most important thing to him, had gone out with one without his knowledge.

She stepped up to him, closing the gap he had created when he had taken a step back, and put her free left hand up to touch the side of his cheek. He seemed to automatically respond without thought by putting his hands on her waist.

"I'm sorry," she told him honestly, "I really didn't mean to cut you out of it."

He just gave her a small appreciate smile before he seemed to brace himself with a breath and asked,

"And second?"

She gave him a confused look and he said,

"You said that was 'first of all', what's your second reason for being upset with me?"

"Oh yeah!" she said instantly fired up again. "You mister, do not get to go around to my ex-boyfriend telling him about nurses at the hospital that are quote on quote, 'all over me'!" she chastised as she dropped his face and slapped at his chest.

He rolled his eyes and muttered, "I'm gonna kill him." but this time in exasperation.

"Is that all?" he asked her sincerely.

She gave him a shrewd look but then said curtly, "I guess so."

"Okay, well I'm sorry. You're right; who you spend your time with is your business. I'm really trying to not hold on so tight to you this time around but I'm not going to lie, Claire, it feels harder than ever." He sighed.

He had said it so softly that she automatically stepped in closer to where he stood with his hands still on her waist, almost closing the gap between their bodies completely, without consciously deciding to do so.

"And?" she probed holding on to the last of her argument.

"And?" he asked back.

"And the thing you told Bennett about Greg!" she insisted.

"Oh no, Claire, he was definitely all over you!" he insisted before saying, "Wait, wait, wait." while holding on to her and pulling her back to him because she had tried to walk away from him. " _BUT_ , I shouldn't have told Bennett about it, you're right, and I'm sorry."

She held her breath for a second as she evaluated him and decided if she wanted to stay angry or not. She quickly decided he was sincere in his apology and that she didn't want to be mad at him anymore anyways.

"Alright." She agreed finally satisfied.

"Oh, alright huh?" he instantly teased while he started tickling her sides with his hands that were already on her waist.

She squealed with laughter when he found her softest spot and immediately curled deeper into him while begging him to stop. He laughed as he gave up on tickling her in favor of wrapping his arms around her and holding her to his chest before he bent down and kissed her hair and then placed his chin on top of her head as he held her.

She rubbed her hand softly on his forearm where it was wrapped around her for a few minutes while she closed her eyes and laid her head back against his chest enjoying the feeling of being at home in his arms, it seemed to push all of the heartbreak from her lunch with Bennett away.

She was so relaxed that she was caught completely of guard when she suddenly felt a powerful heat surge through her body drawing her towards him strongly.

Stronger than she would have expected. Stronger than she would have even thought possible.

Every once in a while, when he was actually touching her skin she would feel his own strong attraction to her transfer to herself unintentionally and she had definitely been feeling moments of her own attraction to him lately, but she didn't feel prepared for how she felt in that moment when she wanted him to pull her in even tighter than he already was and never let her go. She felt her heartbeat start to pound out an acceleration so loud that it was ringing in her ears.

Her mind felt like it was a confusing tangle of wires that were all screaming at her. She couldn't understand what was happening as she felt what she could only describe as a _need_ to physically know more of him. Claire had only associated strong feelings of attraction stemming from moments of feeling emotionally closer to Bennett. The more in love with him she had fallen the more attracted to him she had become. So, she didn't understand where this sudden lust for Quil was stemming from, especially today when she felt like such a mess in her own head, both about her feelings for Quil and the strong lingering ones for Bennett that she almost doubted would ever leave her.

She didn't know what was happening to her as she slowly ran her hand over his forearm, around his elbow and then slowly up his bicep wrapped around her. She just felt like she couldn't _not_ touch more of him. As much of him as she possibly could, in fact. In the small, confused part of her brain that felt like it was currently lit up brighter than a Christmas tree, she noticed how tight and tense the almost unbelievably strong muscles in his arm felt under her touch.

She hadn't opened her eyes since she had leaned back in contentment against his chest. She didn't know how she had lost all of the controls in her brain, but she couldn't seem to find them enough to even open her eyes again as she followed her hand around and turned swiftly in his arms to face him so that she was now breathing roughly into him with her face pressed against his collarbone at the base of his neck.

His arms seemed to loosen slightly around her like he was surprised by her reaction. Whatever that small part of her brain was that was currently in control, it _screamed_ at her that that was unacceptable. Quil needed to hold her and hold her tight! So she took her left hand that had been resting lightly on his bicep, all the way up until her arm was resting on his shoulder while she ran her fingers through the hair that was curling out at the base of his neck, while that voice from that part of her brain said that she knew he liked it when she did that.

Sure enough, she felt him shiver all around her before his arms tightened their hold on her and she felt his breathing grow rough and fast enough to match her own.

When he rubbed his hand up her back under her jacket, following her spine up to between her shoulders blade, she suddenly felt the same chills he had just felt and shivered against him. She didn't have to think… couldn't think, before she came up on her toes to reach her face under his jaw and softly pressed her lips against his neck in the soft indentation on the side of his throat.

She paused with her lips slightly parted against his skin while she waited to gauge his reaction. It took him less than a second to respond exactly as she hoped he would. He gasped and froze when he felt her kiss against him before he roughly pulled his hands back so that they were on the sides of her waist and squeezed them tightly as he lifted her up. Her lower half went limp as he lifted her up and turned smoothly to set her on the counter of the kitchen peninsula that was just to the side of them. She dug her fingers deeper into his hair as she clenched her left arm around his shoulder, holding herself to him while she moved her face up his to neck where she started roughly kissing the soft spot below his ear and behind his jaw.

Claire had never felt such a confusing sensation of such satisfaction while feeling like she still needed so _much_ more than he was already giving her as she hooked her knees onto each of his hips and sat back on the counter without even taking into consideration the fact that she was wearing her favorite sundress.

She felt a sense of immediate relief as he trailed both of his hands up her waist and just under her arms where she shivered when his hands trailed over the exposed skin that her sleeveless dressed exposed before he grabbed at the zipper of her open jacket and went to pull it off her. It came off smoothly from her left arm that she had pulled back from around his neck but got caught under her sling.

She pulled her face back from his neck as he took a small step back, so she could tuck her head down to her chest and roughly grabbed the strap of her sling from around her neck, pull it off and then throw it across the room. She grabbed at the jacket and vest combo over her right shoulder and swiftly yanked it all the way off her casted arm before tossing it in the same direction as her sling. She urgently looked up at Quil for the first time to see his own intense desire for her, that was mirroring her need for him, burning in his eyes as she grabbed him behind the neck again and pulled him back to her where she could bring her lips in to urgently meet his. He wrapped his hands around her waist and she locked her knees back around his hips so that she would never be more than six inches away from him at any time so she could feel the intense heat burning off of his body.

She hadn't been expecting what she felt when he kissed her. She had past thinking and had moved on to only feeling and reacting when she had pressed her lips so hard and fast against his. Her desire for more of him screamed almost angrily at her. His answering kiss to her, though just as rough and eager, was filled with a tenderness that made her feel somehow both adored and incredibly breakable.

He gave a small moan of relief in the back of his throat once they actually started kissing each other and she knew it stemmed from finally being able to do what he had spent so much energy holding back from. His moan made her instantly tighten her knees on him and bring her feet up to wrap her legs around his waist while he moved a hand up to her face and his palm cradled her cheek. His fingers wove into her hair above her ear and he kissed her so intensely that even that part of her brain that had been _screaming_ at her suddenly went quiet to listen to the message he seemed to be singing to her with his lips.

They kissed each other like that for multiple minutes of Quil seeming to passionately confess things through his kiss and Claire devouring it all in return, before Claire's hand found its way all the way down his chest and stomach and then under his soft t-shirt so she could experience the muscle and skin she had felt and seen a million times before for the very first time.

Her hand trailed hungrily up his defined abs, enjoying the sensation of each one she touched before her fingertips trailed the bottom of one of his pectoral muscles, cut out so hard and firm against his chest. She felt him shiver again under her touch before he brought his other hand to her face and pulled his mouth back from hers to catch his breath. Completely undeterred from his slight pull back Claire just moved her mouth down from his, to his chin, and then his jaw line. She started working on his neckline again, while she continued to feel more strongly than ever that she just needed _more_ of him.

"Claire?" His usually soft voice said so roughly that she was surprised he had been able to say anything at all.

"Hmmm?" She groaned while completely lost in him.

Her hand moved farther up to explore more of his chest, while she continued to kiss into his beard, surprised to find she didn't mind the facial hair in the way at all.

He couldn't seem to answer as one of his hands moved to one of her thighs, pushing the skirt of her dress up out of the way as he squeezed on the skin of her leg, and his other hand moved from her face to the back of her hair where it held her to where she was kissing his neck. She flipped her hand around inside his shirt to clasp onto a handful and pull down on it and bring him closer before he finally cleared his throat roughly and croaked out,

"What about all your boundaries?"

 _What boundaries?_ She thought as she immediately wondered what he was talking about as she continued to kiss him while using the leverage of her arm pulling against his shirt to pull her body closer to his.

As the reminder of boundaries finally sank in the reality of the situation suddenly came crashing down on her and she realized what she was doing. She was sitting on the counter with her hand up his shirt, practically tearing it open she was pulling down on it so hard. Her face was pressed deep into his neck where she had been being so aggressively she was almost biting down. Her legs were completely opened, and her knees were still locked over his hips and her feet were linked over each other around the back of him.

She stopped, suddenly frozen against him. She felt him loosen his hold on her both with his hand pressed against the back of her neck and hair and his hand that had been squeezing her thigh but now was just resting against her skin. Her eyes snapped open when she quickly pulled her face away from his neck as she let go of his shirt and yanked her hand back out of it while simultaneously unlocking her legs from around him and dropping them.

He took a small step back so that she could close her legs together in front of him while she used her free left hand to pull her skirt back down even though it didn't cover that much more of her leg than he had pushed it up to expose. She ran her shaking hand through her hair as she blew out an even shakier breath. She could see Quil taking steadying breaths from where he stood only a foot in front of her while she stared down at his knees.

She couldn't believe what she had just done. What she had been about to do. She knew she wouldn't have stopped. As far as he had been willing to take it, that was how far she had been willing to go. She had been about to throw her virginity away on a whim in a single moment of lapsed control. She had spent all day thinking how stupid Collin had been for causing so much trouble simply because he wouldn't stop long enough to think about his actions and now she was the worlds biggest hypocrite.

Claire couldn't stop shaking. She kept swallowing, but the tears kept pooling in her eyes anyways. She knew there was no way she could blame Quil for what had just happened. This had been all her. Every single moment. Every lust-filled touch she was to blame for.

Quil step back up to her and waited for her to look up at him as he put his hands on the counter on either side of her, but she just kept staring around him at Butch wagging his tail as he happily watched her from his spot on the couch. Her tears refused to be contained anymore once he put his hand on her cheek to try to get her to look up at him. A steady stream of tears started to spill down her face right into his hand. She turned her head away still refusing to look at him, but he kept his hand on her face as he tried to pull her gaze back up.

"Hey!" he said softly, still trying to force her to look at him, but she couldn't do it. "Claire?"

She still wouldn't look at him.

"Honey, it's okay. Nothing happened, alright? No permanent damage done."

She just nodded her head, disgusted with herself, as the tears she couldn't control flooded down her face into his palm. He hadn't touched her anywhere but her face since they had broken apart, but he let out a painful sigh before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her face into his chest.

As soon as he embraced her, she started sobbing. He just stroked her hair and held her for a second before he said painfully,

"Claire, baby, _please_ say something!"

She pulled her sobs back just enough to say, "Quil, I'm so sorry!"

She heard him choke a little on her apology. He seemed pretty broken up for a moment before he coughed to clear his throat and said,

"No. _I'm_ sorry."

She shook her head into his chest knowing that it hadn't been his fault. He understood her gesture and said,

" _I'm_ the adult here, Claire, remember? And I definitely knew better than to allow what just happened here, okay?"

She took a deep breath and forced herself to pull back her sobs, knowing that breaking down would just hurt Quil, who she had already hurt enough.

She pulled back from him and wiped the tears from her eyes as she said,

"We'll just agree to disagree."

He scoffed at her before he took her face in both of his hands and forced her to finally look at him.

"Are you okay?" He sounded so worried and concerned.

She swallowed as she nodded her head in his hands.

"No you aren't…" He answered, clearly upset.

"I'll be fine, Quil, as soon as I can find a way to forgive myself…."

He scoffed again, clearly not liking the way she was blaming herself.

"I knew what I was doing, Quil. So, just let me be mad at me for a minute, okay?" She insisted.

He shrugged like he wasn't comfortable with that idea, before he said, "Is that what you need?"

"Yes!" She told him honestly. She took a breath and then asked, "Now what do you need?"

He seemed surprised that she would be concerned about his feelings in a moment like this. _How could I not be worried about his feelings_? She thought to herself.

He shrugged in answer while still staring intently at her.

"What?" She asked insistently. "Quil, _let_ me give you what you need!"

He didn't say anything while he seemed to evaluate her. After a moment he seemed to make a decision as he leaned in slowly to her. He closed his eyes the second before his lips softly met hers. It wasn't a small peck of a kiss, but it had lost all of the rough urgency from a moment before.

She softly kissed him back as she felt all of his need to express his love and affection for her, separately from the hormone fueling lust filled exchange they had had moments before. He was unbelievably tender in his kiss as he seemed to bare his soul to her.

Claire felt his bottom lip quiver against both of hers before he pulled back to place his forehead against hers. Her eyes were filled with tears again by the time he finished kissing her.

He stood breathing against her for a moment before he said,

"Let's take Butch for a walk. I think we could both use some air."

She nodded her head while she swallowed her tears back down. He stepped back so she could jump down from the counter and she quickly wiped at her tear streaked face. She was sure that her makeup was a mess by now and was just thankful she had decided against wearing a bold lipstick. He quickly picked up her sling and jacket from where they had landed on his bed. He sweetly helped her into her jacket and then zipped it for her before helping her in her sling, he grabbed her hand and said,

"Come on, Butch. Let's go!"

Butch immediately hoped off the couch and followed behind them as they walked out the door.

They spent the rest of the day walking around a park a few blocks from the shop while Quil threw the tennis ball he had grabbed on his way out the door for Butch. They didn't talk much, but Claire did ask about how things were with Collin and Quil told her that he was healing fine, but that he was no longer speaking with him after the heated exchange they had had that morning. He was staying another night on the cot at the Urgent Care since they didn't have any actual patient beds. Collin was well enough to heal at home but Quil was making him stay until Jacob cleared him to go. It was really just a punishment since the P.A. there couldn't really do anything for him anyways.

He walked Claire home after that. It was silent between them as they got to her house, but he asked her if he could drive her to school the next morning.

"Why? I thought you were picking me up from school before we pick Jacob up from the airport?" She asked him confused.

He nodded his head, "I am, but it'll be Bennett's first day back, that's got to be rough and I want to see you beforehand." He explained.

"Okay. Thanks." She said sincerely, appreciating his gesture of support. She wanted to smile at him but knew she couldn't manage it.

He put both his hands on the sides of her face and she looked up at him as he said,

"Get some sleep, Babe. I'll see you in the morning."

She nodded even though she thought she should have been the one insisting that he get some sleep. She wondered how many hours of sleep he had gotten the night before.

She stood on her toes and met his lips to kiss him softly goodnight before she said goodbye to Butch, who licked her face enthusiastically, and then went inside. 

That night Claire cried herself to sleep, knowing that she had no business kissing Quil the way she had, both because of the physical intimacy of it and because of the way she could feel his sharply defined feelings for her that she couldn't reciprocate while she was still so screwed up in her own heart and head. The worst part was that now that she had gone there, she knew it would be just as unfair to quit kissing Quil, as it had been to kiss him in the first place. She knew that physical affection was his expression of love and refusing to let him kiss her would be like refusing to let him say what he needed to. She loved him and she would never want to shut him off from what _he_ needed. 

She had expected to feel nervous the next morning, both about seeing Quil again and about Bennett's first day back at school since the breakup, but instead she just felt numb. She let herself sleep in a half hour past when she was supposed to get up and then quickly got ready without bothering to shower and not really caring what she looked like. She barely applied mascara and then some blush. By then she was out of time anyways, so she pulled on a soft knit drawstring skirt with a T-shirt and the same pull over v-neck striped sweater she had worn the week before when she and Quil had baked his congratulations/birthday cake and she hadn't even washed it yet.

She put on extra deodorant and some perfume for good measure. She didn't even do her hair, but Rachel caught a glimpse of her while she was brushing her teeth and insisted on at least pulling it into a high ponytail for her. After Rachel finished pulling it up she had some shorter layers of hair hanging out in front of her face, but she didn't care enough to do anything about it and Rachel said it was soft and flattering. She was already late, so she grabbed her bag and walked out the door without looking first to find Quil waiting for her in his car.

"Hi." He said in a tone that clearly said he was concerned about her.

She leaned over the console toward him until he quickly kissed her. She figured that would make him happy and assuage his worry, but he seemed surprised, maybe even shocked by her casual greeting.

"Hey" she said casually as she put her backpack on the floor and buckled her seatbelt.

She expected him to pull out, but he didn't make any move to start driving. She turned to look up at him in confusion and saw that he was staring at her, looking concerned.

"What's wrong? I'm running late, and we need to go." She told him, still feeling confused.

She didn't think he even processed what she had said before he asked,

"Are we okay?"

"Yeah, of course!" She answered automatically. She had just kissed him, hadn't she? Did he think she would have kissed him if she was upset with him?

"Are you sure, because after what happened yesterday-" he started.

Claire cut across him to say, "I don't really want to talk about yesterday, but we're fine. I promise." she grabbed his hand that was clenched on his lap and gave it a squeeze.

He didn't look convinced, but he turned to put the car in drive and it was the first time she got a look at his profile. She gasped, and he turned back to her, but she had already turned away to look back out the front windshield away from him.

She had just seen the two large hickeys that _she_ had left on his neck. One was a dark purple, the other a deep red.

She was biting down so hard on her lip that he reached over and touched it to get her to stop before she bit through it, before he said casually,

"They aren't _that_ bad….. I've actually had worse before…. _AND_ … I probably shouldn't have just told you that…." He finished obviously concerned with how she would react to the information.

She turned to face him before she gave him a small but appreciative smile and nodded in response.

They drove quickly to school in silence after that. Once he pulled up she said, "I'll see you in a few hours." as she reached over to squeeze his hand again knowing that she couldn't kiss him again while they were in front of the school.

"'Kay, I'll see you then." He said in what seemed to be a concerned voice.

She gave him a reassuring smile, so that he would know she would be fine today as she got out of the car.

She didn't look back as she walked into school. She was so out of it that she forgot to get her algebra textbook out of her locker and just went straight to class. She noticed she didn't have it when she sat down unnoticed by the class for once but didn't have enough time to get it before the bell rang. She couldn't quite make herself care about it though. She looked up when the chatter around the classroom completely died even though the bell hadn't rung yet. Her heart gave a painful squeeze when she saw Bennett walking through the door and suddenly understood why it had gotten so quiet.

He came to sit at his desk next to hers where he usually sat, and he gave her an understanding look with raised eyebrows as they both overheard someone say,

"He's huge now! What was he _doing_ while he was gone, undergoing some sort of experimental growth treatment?"

"How's it going?" He asked her friendly as ever.

She wanted to just shrug but knew that he would assume her stoicness was due to him.

"Fine. You?" She asked as cheerfully as she could pull off, hoping he wouldn't see through her the same way Quil always did.

He shrugged and said, "This will just be an adjustment is all…"

She nodded her head as the bell rang.

He ended up sharing his textbook with her while people continued to whisper about them, all around them, for the next forty minutes. Towards the end of class, he looked up at her and said sincerely,

"Can I ask you something, Claire?"

"Sure." She answered, feeling a little nervous that she wouldn't be able to answer honestly.

"Did something happen between you and Quil?"

He surprised her by asking.

"What do you mean?" She asked evasively while afraid of the answer.

"Was he mad about us going to lunch yesterday?" He asked. Claire wasn't sure why, but she got the distinct impression he had been about to say something else and then decided to ask that instead.

"Oh no, I explained it to him and we're just fine." She assured him.

"Okay then…." He said and was quiet for a moment, she had gone back to copying down the homework problems when he suddenly started again, " …it's just that you seem really quiet today, and yesterday you were fine at lunch….. And last night….. Quil is usually so focused, but last night he was so distracted and couldn't stop thinking about you."

She knew exactly why she was being quiet and why Quil had been distracted, but she wasn't going to get into it with the boy that was just as much the problem as anything else was.

She gave him a smile that if not completely sincere was at least warm just as the bell rang and then said,

"Don't worry, Bennett. Quil and I are fine!"

He definitely didn't seem convinced. _Maybe my smile wasn't as warm as I thought…._ she thought to herself as he said,

"Alright…. I'll see you at lunch?"

"Definitely." She confirmed brightly while wanting cry. 

She spent the rest of the morning listening to the whispers of her classmates around her about how huge Bennett now was and about their breakup. She still felt numb enough to not really care about any of it and was grateful for it.

She and Bennett ended up coincidentally meeting each other in front of the cafeteria before lunch. Almost everyone else was already there so they were alone in the hall. He just looked at her as he put a hand on the strap of his backpack like he was holding on to it for support as he asked,

"You ready for this?"

They both knew that lunch was going to be the worst part as far as the rumor mill went.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She answered as she braced herself for her first lunch with him as just friends.

They both chuckled after they took a bracing deep breath at the same time, before he said, "Well, here we go!" and opened the door for her. She had to remind herself that he only did it to be polite.

They walked in together and had only made it about three feet when Claire heard Macy's voice yell out,

"Claire! Bennett! Over here!"

She had been prepared for it, knowing that Macy would want as many firsthand details about what was going on with them as they were willing to give her.

What she wasn't prepared for was Bennett's sharp intake of breath. She quickly looked up at him to see him staring at Macy like he had never seen her before. Like he had just taken his first breath of air. Like his whole center of being had just shifted to her. Like Macy was the only thing that mattered anymore.

Just like the way that Quil had always looked at her.

Claire suddenly heard Dr. Clyde's voice in her head when she had been about to re-break her arm so she could set it correctly,

" _Sorry, Claire. But your pain has to get worse before you can heal."_

 ** _*_ Author's note***

 **Whewee, that was a** _long_ **chapter! It's been a few chapters since Claire's POV and she just had a LOT of story to get through! Okay, but honestly I love this chapter! It always leaves me breathless and excited because SO MUCH happens in it! (Which is ridiculous because I wrote it and know exactly what happens. but still! haha) I hope you enjoyed it too and would love to get feedback on your reaction to any of the game changing things that happens (and I feel like there was more than a few!) to Claire in this chapter! Thanks for reading! xoxo**


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

 **Quil:**

Quil was sitting in his car, scrolling through the music on his phone as he waited to pick Claire up from school. He was trying to find something to soothe and calm him since he was feeling so anxious about her. He couldn't get the thought out of his head that Bennett was somehow, someway, going to do something, to screw this up. But he knew how reliable Bennett was and he figured the feeling of foreboding was just stemming from Collin's recent exploits that he was still trying to clean up the mess from. He thought for the millionth time how relieved he would be when he picked Jacob up at the airport later that evening and officially passed the baton of responsibility to the shoulders where they rightfully belonged. He started drumming his fingers anxiously across the steering wheel as he focused again on the ache of worry about Claire that had settled in his stomach since that morning.

He knew that since it was Bennett's first day back, he would be worried about Claire anyways, but this was different. This was deeper. This was worried about her, and about _them_. She had said they were fine, but _she_ wasn't. She was off.

He had been beyond surprised when she had first kissed his neck in that quiet moment after her lunch with her ex-boyfriend, but then all reason had been completely lost from him, and after that…. well things had just gotten a little out of hand. He had somehow miraculously found his sanity in time to keep things from escalating too far, but still… things had gone far enough. She had regretted it and he knew it.

That all made sense to him. Claire was sixteen and a virgin, so all her reactions had been rational, even understandable. What he couldn't make sense of was her behavior since.

He couldn't figure out why she hadn't thrown her boundaries back up in his face and tried to push him away from her, at least in a physical sense. That would be reasonable, that way she could protect herself from a repeat of the intense flame burning between them that seemed to have gotten her burned. But instead she was somehow satisfied to maintain the casual kissing relationship they seemed to have tripped head first into.

Claire wasn't usually very physically affectionate. She wasn't even a particularly big hugger. But she had surprised Quil with a casual kiss each moment that he could have possibly wanted one, without fail, since she had surprised him with their unexpected make-out session. Every single time. It was like she could anticipate his wants before he even could. She just seemed to know when he would feel the urge and then didn't even wait for him to ask for it before she doled it out for him. As much as Quil would have liked her sudden not-so-public displays of affection (and he would have really liked it) he was too immensely concerned about it to actually enjoy it.

He needed to figure out where these kisses from her were coming from and _where_ she was while she was giving them, because she definitely wasn't there in the moment with him. He had already decided that he was going to ask her to sneak away to spend the night at his place tonight. He felt guilty for specifically asking her to sneak around behind her parents back, especially after he had just promised Robert the day before that he would always look out for Claire and that he would never ask her to do something that wasn't in her best interest, but that was how he justified it. They needed some time alone to talk through whatever was going on with them and that was in Claire's best interest, right?

He just had this thought that kept cropping up unexpectedly all day long; that he just wished she was angry with him for what had happened between them. Her being angry would be so much easier for him to understand, he knew how to deal with that. This. This he didn't have any idea how to handle. She wasn't mad at all. It was like she was so disappointed she had completely given up.

He had been alarmed at her appearance when she had walked out of the front door to meet him in his car that morning. She looked incredibly beautiful in her skirt that was just short enough to be tempting without being too revealing but she had definitely put less effort in herself than she usually did. She was even wearing a sweater that she had already worn that week and was hardly wearing any makeup at all. It just wasn't like her. And her attitude seemed to have a complete lack of energy. Claire had always been some what of a spit-fire but now it seemed like she was deflated somehow. He could probably have suggested that they run off to Vegas and elope together and she would have agreed simply because she didn't seem to have the energy to not go along with whatever he wanted.

He was worried. That was for sure. The two giant hickeys on his neck definitely weren't helping the situation either. They were like over-obvious flashing neon reminders of her regret.

He had just been debating if he wanted to ask Jacob for advice on how to handle this situation he had managed to get himself into, when the bell rang ending the day of the high school that he was parked in front of. He was surprised when Claire was one of the first people out the doors.

 _Uh-oh, that can't be a good sign._ He quickly thought to himself. Claire was usually one of the last to leave if not actually late leaving school. He couldn't read her face at all and she seemed distracted. She was looking down as she quickly walked to the car and hopped in. She shoved her bag down by her feet and quickly pulled the door closed behind her all in the same motion before she grabbed at her seatbelt above her right shoulder.

"Hi," he said softly while tilting his face to try to catch her eye.

She didn't respond. She didn't even seem to hear him. She slipped down so that she was slouching so low in her seat she almost couldn't be seen from out of the window.

She brought her hand up to her face where she wrapped her thumb and fingers around her temples, completely covering her face and then mumbled to herself, "Think, Claire. Just think."

 _Definitely not a good sign!_ He thought while watching her.

"Claire?" he asked her concerned.

She turned to look at him when he said her name, but her eyes slipped past his face to land on the hickeys on his neck again.

"Crap. And then there's that!" She said to herself, fixating on them just like he was worried she would.

"Claire? What's going on? You okay?" he asked her, wishing he could go back to a year ago when he felt like he always understood her perfectly.

She had become distracted before he had even finished speaking, she was looking out the window before she said,

"Crap! Go, Quil! Let's just get out of here already!"

She was practically shrieking by the end making Quil even more worried about her. Her wanting to get away from school was also not a great sign.

"I'm going to kill him." Quil said to himself as he put the car in reserve and pulled out.

He was already debating, based on Claire's reactions, if he was going to permanently pull Bennett out from school or if he should leave him up to Jake to deal with. He didn't know what specifically Claire was upset about this time, but he had a good guess as to who was responsible.

She started sniffing back tears as soon as she heard his remark, but she surprised him when she asked,

"What time are we leaving to pick Jacob up from the airport?"

He would have thought she was just trying to change the subject so that he wouldn't be upset with Bennett, except for the fact that she had asked it so urgently, like she needed to know as quickly as possible.

"Um…. We need to leave in about an hour..."

It took him a second to think of the answer because he was so concerned about what was wrong with her. His mind felt the same way it had for those months without here. The imprinted part of his brain was ringing alarms again; _Claire. Claire. Something's wrong with Claire. Fix it Quil. Claire._

"That should work." She seemed to mumble to herself as she reached down to her backpack and dug her phone out of the front pocket.

"What do you mean? Work for what?" he asked her confused but she seemed glued to her phone suddenly.

He was trying to wait patiently for her to tell him what had happened and not hound her when she seemed so keyed up, but she was starting to become frustratingly cryptic, especially while the alarm was ringing in his head.

She looked up from her phone suddenly when he parked the car in front of the shop like usual.

"What…. Oh, I need you to take me home… I guess I didn't say that." She said quickly.

He was pretty surprised since for the last week he had brought her home with him after she finished school before taking her home for the day. She seemed flustered like her mind was in several places at once. He thought again about how he needed time with her to work out whatever was going on with her…. _and_ with them.

"Claire…." He said stunned and shocked. She hadn't been back since their steamy make-out session the day before. "I won't touch you, I promise."

"What?" she asked seeming shocked. "NO, Quil! It's not you! I just don't have time to hang out, I need to pack before we leave for the airport!"

She put her hand on his cheek and reached all the way over until she surprised him again by kissing him softly as if she was trying to prove that he wasn't the problem. As nice as the kiss was he was just left more concerned then ever.

"Claire," he said shocked as he grabbed her hand when she pulled it back from his face. "What is going on!? What the hell happened at school? Why do you need to pack? _You_ aren't going anywhere." he paused for a second before he asked insistently, "Right!?"

She continued to seem flustered as she stared out in front of her for a second before she said,

"I'll explain while I pack, okay? But we're fine. Alright? I promise, we're fine!"

Quil felt the nervous pit in his gut twist sickeningly into a ball. Why was she packing? There was no reason that he could think of that didn't end painfully for him. She hadn't told him to pack too and it didn't escape his notice; if she was going somewhere it was without him. He also didn't like the way she kept saying that they were fine. She had said it that morning too and every time she said it, it made him more nervous like they definitely _weren't_ fine. She said it so desperately, like she was trying to convince herself it was true.

She sucked in a sharp breath and Quil noticed that she was tearing up again as she said,

"Wait here, I'll be right back. I just want to say goodbye to Butch."

She reached over quickly and opened her door before he could stop her.

"Claire, wait! Where are you going!?" he called after her, but she was already running into the shop.

She had left the car door open behind her, so he knew she was planning on coming right back or else he would have followed her and demanded some explanations.

It took all of his control to not snap the steering wheel in his hands as he sat waiting for Claire. He was just about to get out and follow her inside to find out what exactly was going on with her when she came running back out to the car while wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Claire! What happened at school? What did he do?" he immediately pestered her the second she was in the car again.

She just shook her head while staring forward and refusing to look at him. Quil was pulling out when she choked back a sob and said,

"Nothing. He didn't do anything wrong."

He was at a complete loss and was momentarily speechless until he pulled up in front of her house a minute later. He quickly turned off the car and turn around in his seat to face her before he said,

"Claire, whatever happened, whatever he did, I need to know about it."

She nodded with her shaking hand covering her mouth. She seemed like she couldn't speak. She took a huge breath and reached over with her shaking hand to open the door.

"Wait! Claire!" he said urgently. He needed to pin her down and get some real answers from her.

She stopped and turned back to him. She wasn't shaking anymore, and she seemed oddly calm even though there were silent tears that seemed to keep leaking out of her eyes.

She reached out and put her hand on his cheek, he immediately grabbed it, holding her to him before she could suddenly hurry off away from him again. She took another breath before she looked up to meet his eyes for the first time and said quickly,

"I love you, Quil."

"I love you too." He said automatically while not understanding what was happening and feeling like there was a fish hook suddenly yanking at the twisted knot in his gut.

She nodded and swallowed before she said softly,

"….I….I have to go away for a while, okay? But it's _not_ because of you. You. Are. Perfect. And I wish I could stay here for you but I …. I just…. I'm a mess right now, Quil… I need to go… I …." She seemed to be flustering again as she tried to pull her hand away and get out of the car.

"Claire, wait!" He said firmly as he grabbed her wrist and refused to let it slide through his fingers. "What are you talking about? You can't go anywhere." He said completely dumbfounded.

He didn't like the way she was explaining how she had to leave, as if she was saying goodbye. She had already left his life for four months and it had only been ten days since he had gotten her back; she couldn't leave.

She nodded and squeezed his hand before she said, "Come on, I have to pack."

She pulled insistently at her arm until he let it go and she slipped out of the car. He immediately followed her. She was already running up the walk when he asked disbelievingly, "Where are you going!?"

She was opening the front door and he had to run after her to try to catch up to her. She was running up the stairs when he closed the door behind him and heard her call behind her an answer to his question,

"I'm going to Tennessee."

Quil himself was now shaking and feeling like he was losing control as he ran so fast up the stairs that it literally wasn't humanly possible. He couldn't process what she was telling him, and he needed her to explain it to him. She was in the hall taking a suitcase out of the linen closet. She seemed like she was in a hurry as she dragged it to her room looking at the clock on the wall before throwing it on her bed.

"What do you mean you're going to Tennessee? That doesn't make any sense!" he told her quickly, feeling like this must be some sort of cruel practical joke at his expense.

"You remember Tami? My aunt? She lives in Tennessee now, and I'm going to go stay with her for a while." She answered quietly without looking at him as she opened the suitcase.

She seemed calmer now that she was quickly moving about packing. Quil had vague memories of Robert and Emily's sister Tami who he had met a few times at various Young family events over the years.

"What!? Why!?" he asked her completely nonplussed.

"I just have to get away for a while, alright?" she answered as she opened her underwear drawer and started packing its contents into her suitcase.

Quil would have thought that he was too distracted by the situation to think at all about all of the underwear that he was now suddenly immensely curious to see Claire in, but apparently he wasn't.

He was shaking his head and Claire stopped suddenly to look at him and said insistently,

"Don't worry! This _won't_ be like last fall! I'm _not_ pushing you away this time. We'll talk all the time, alright? Everyday. Multiple times a day!"

Her reassurances suddenly made it all real and brought it home to him the fact that she was really preparing to go.

"What!? No, Claire, you can't just leave! You're a minor. You're still in high school. You have to book a flight, you can't just show up at the airport." He said, quickly trying to debunk the idea of her leaving.

She nodded her head as she started pulling pajama's out and packing them.

"I know. I talked to some of my teachers already. I'm going to do what I can online while I'm gone. My dad booked me a flight this afternoon. I was just checking in and downloading my boarding pass on my phone in the car." She explained.

Her responses temporarily stunned him as he processed how prepared she already was to leave.

"Why!?" he asked shocked.

How had all of this happened just while she was at school and what could possibly be her reasoning for doing it? He stepped in front of her suitcase as she turned back from her dresser with a pair of jeans in her hand. If she expected him to let her leave, then she had at least better give him a damn good reason.

"Here. I'll take care of that before we go. Come on." She said as she gestured at her own neck and threw her jeans on the bed next to her suitcase, refusing to acknowledge her reasons for suddenly flying to Tennessee.

She grabbed his lifeless hand and dragged him out of her room and down the stairs. She slipped her hand out of his when they got to the table and said,

"Here, sit down for a second, Quil."

He was too stunned by everything that was happening around him to move. He just stood there staring after her as she opened the freezer and pulled out a spoon.

"Here. Put this against your hickeys. It's cold but it'll help them heal faster." She said handing it to him and pushing him into a chair.

That yanked him out of his stunned stupor as he said,

"How do _you_ know that?"

He himself had used the frozen spoon trick a few times back in the day but he did _not_ like the idea of Claire needing to know about it's effectiveness.

She refused to answer him as she said, "I'll get something to cover them up." And ran back upstairs.

Quil's head was still reeling. He couldn't seem to understand how this thing that affected him so much was happening without him. It was clear to him though that this train was running and he either needed to get on board or get left behind. He was shaking his head trying to catch up when she came downstairs again, this time with a makeup bag in her hand. She set the bag on the table next to him and then went and got a sharpie out of the kitchen drawer. She handed it to him and said,

"Here, you number each product after I use it, then when I'm gone you can apply it yourself until they heal. It'll probably only take you another day until their gone you heal so fast."

He nodded his head numbly while thinking that he really didn't care if anyone saw them. He hadn't even used the spoon she had handed him. She made him turn his head at a funny angle to expose his neck while she started applying the makeup to cover up the marks she had left on him. He didn't understand why she was doing it. Why did it matter enough to hide them if she wasn't going to be around when someone asked who they were from?

She worked quickly and handed Quil each product after she was finished with it so that he could write the order number it was to be used on it before she put it in the small bag she had brought down with her. There were at least six steps, so it made sense as to why she had him number them, there was no way he would remember it all.

He hadn't said anything while she was standing close, working on covering up the physical evidence of their recent unexpected exploits. He just sat there, silently feeling numbed and shocked.

When she went to hand him the bag of makeup to take home with him and said, "Here, now you can do it tomorrow." it finally set in that she wasn't just leaving… she was going to be gone. He wouldn't see her tomorrow. He didn't even know when the next time would be that he'd see her again. Again. He had already lived enough of his life that way in just the last few months and he didn't think he could handle anymore.

He reached out from where he was sitting on his chair and wrapped his arm around her waist. She had already turned to head back up the stairs and keep packing, but he held her trapped in his arm, refusing to let her go. She wasn't fighting against him, at least not physically, but she wouldn't look at him as she was forced to take a step back and turn around to face him while he pulled her to his side.

"Claire…" he demanded, "Why? Why are you going? …. Yesterday… yesterday shouldn't have happened. I _know_ that. But you don't need to-" she looked up sharply and said,

"It's not about yesterday!" she sounded shocked that he would think that it was. "I mean I shouldn't have… We shouldn't of….it just… it's _not_ about yesterday." She flustered making Quil feel less certain than ever that it wasn't about the day before. It was just like the way she kept saying they were fine.

"Then why? Why are you leaving?" he demanded still refusing to let her go. He _couldn't_ let her go. He had already made that mistake once, he wasn't going to make it again.

She looked down again and started biting her lip in stress almost as hard as she had done that morning when she had seen the hickeys she had left on his neck.

"You were right before…." She whispered.

He was instantly nervous. So, it _was_ about yesterday….

"Right about what?" he heard his voice shake a little when he asked. He was terrified of the answer that he so desperately needed.

"…It…. It's about Bennett…. That's why… _he's_ why I'm leaving." She whispered while still staring at the floor.

Bennett. He just _knew_ that kid was going to screw this up somehow. And now because of him she was trying to leave him again.

"What did he do?" he whispered back calmly, determined to get the answers he needed to fix this. He knew Claire best, he could fix this if she would just explain what was wrong.

She just shook her head as he saw the tears start to fall down her face. Whatever Bennett had done was clearly painful for her and she obviously didn't want to talk about it. He would have let it drop to relieve her discomfort if it weren't so important that he get answers from her.

"Claire, what did he do?" he asked more insistently while still trying to be sensitive to her pain.

She took in a very shaky breath and said, "…. He…. He…."

She couldn't seem to get it out and she quickly brought her free left hand that had been wrapped around Quil's shoulder up to cover her mouth. A horrible thought had just occurred to him that might explain why Claire might be so upset and suddenly want to leave.

"Did he _touch_ you!?" Quil demanded, surprised at the idea but knowing exactly how badly Bennett had wanted to still be with her.

" _NO!_ " She sounded shocked and offended at the idea as she looked back at him, "He would never do that!"

"Then _what_ happened!?" he demanded, completely at a loss.

"HE _IMPRINTED_! He imprinted on Macy! Right there in front of me, he just looked at her and then... he was gone…he …... he…." and she was sobbing. She had said it so rushed and yet Quil could feel her reliving it as she tried to explain what it had been like to witness Bennett find his own soulmate.

Quil was shocked. He didn't even know how to feel about it. He wasn't even sure he believed it.

"How… How can you be sure?" he asked her a little doubtfully.

She collapsed onto his lap where she sat sobbing, hunched over with her hand covering her mouth.

"I saw the way he looked at her!" she cried out desperately between sobs.

Quil was still so shocked that he hadn't made any move to hold her or comfort her in anyway. He just sat there with his arms loosely around her as she sat on his lap.

"How did he look at her?" he asked, still confused.

She chocked back a sob to whisper,

"…The same way you look at me…."

Quil just sat there for a second completely stunned and trying to process everything that was happening. After almost a full minute of Claire sobbing on his lap, he put his hand on her back and said in a voice that sounded dead in his ears,

"Come on, I'll help you pack. What time does your flight leave?"

After that he helped Claire get ready to go while doing his best to shove his intense instinct to refuse to let her leave his side, as far away as he could. He wasn't that helpful in the packing department since he kept noticing different pieces of underwear she had packed and deciding that they were way too sexy for her to leave with and taking them out to put back in her drawer while she continued to tell him her flight details and about her aunt's ranch where she would be staying.

The first time he did this he didn't think that she had noticed until she came back to her dresser a minute later and pulled the two bras and the pair of panties he had put in there back out and set them back in the mesh pocket of her suitcase without acknowledging it at all. He was still feeling a little numb and there wasn't enough for him to focus on that wasn't too painful, so he tried again.

When she went into the bathroom to grab her toothbrush while telling him about how she would be getting assignments emailed to her from her teachers, he reached back into the pocket and took them back out again, this time grabbing a nude colored bra and a pair of plain black cotton panties and stuck them in her suitcase to replace the lace set he had taken out.

Claire asked him if he would be okay by himself with Butch as she poked her head out the door, which of course he thought was ridiculous, and then went back into the bathroom before she came back out with her makeup bag in hand. She set it in her suitcase before she grabbed the bra and panties that Quil had placed inside, under the rest of her underwear where he thought she wouldn't see it, took them back to her dresser and grabbed the original set as she reminded him to not forget to walk Butch as she placed it back in her bag.

She was going through the shower in her bathroom and packing her shampoo when Quil grabbed the same sexy set for the third time, thinking he didn't have anything to lose by trying again. He was just opening her dresser drawer when she said,

"Quil! Quit trying to repack my underwear!"

He placed them in the drawer and closed it, he turned to look at her standing in the bathroom doorway where she had caught him red-handed.

"What do you need sexy underwear for anyways? If no one is going to see it, why wear it?" he asked hoping to not sound controlling while making sure that no one would be seeing her in her underwear.

"Don't be misogynistic!" she demanded as she crossed in front of him and pulled her underwear back out of the drawer.

"How is that misogynistic?" he asked. Possessive maybe but misogynistic? He wasn't exactly trying to oppress her with more moderate underwear.

"You're implying that I choose my underwear based on how men will react to it instead of what I want to wear. That what I wear is somehow for someone else's benefit" She explained calmly while repacking it.

Quil shrugged at her explanation, not really having a good defense. Though he suddenly felt a lot better about the underwear she chose to wear.

She finished packing quickly after that. As she went through and packed her purse, Quil carried her suitcase and duffle bag she had packed down the stairs and out to the car while reminding himself that it was his job to always support her doing what was best for her… even if it wasn't what wasbestfor him.

She came out quickly and locked the door since no one else was home yet.

The two-hour drive to Seattle went by remarkably quickly all while the closer they got to Claire leaving the stronger Quil's instincts to beg her to stay became. He knew exactly how to manipulate her when he wanted to, but he kept reasoning with himself that it would be wrong to do it in this scenario. He was suddenly losing the battle with his self-control again the same way he had been losing his battle to steer clear of her physically. Obviously, the day before had proven he had almost no grasp on it.

As he pulled into short-term parking his hands started shaking. He parked at a spot much farther back from the doors to check-in and baggage claim than he needed to. She was digging through her purse and asking absentmindedly, "You don't think I'll need my passport, do you?" when he turned to her and asked more desperately then he would have liked,

"When are you coming home again?"

She stopped to look up at him. She bit her lip and looked back down before she said,

"I don't know. I don't even have a return flight booked yet."

Though not completely unexpected it was _not_ the answer he had wanted to hear. Quil looked forward so that he wasn't looking at her as he sucked in a breath and grabbed onto whatever self-control he had left as he popped the trunk and got out of the car.

She followed him and reached to grab her duffle bag to carry before he pushed her arm aside. He easily slipped the handle of it over the pull-out handle of the suitcase before he slammed the now empty trunk and grabbed Claire's hand. They started to walk toward the flight check-ins since she had to check her bags while he pulled her luggage behind him.

She was quiet and seemed distracted as they walked together. He had to resist the urge to squeeze her hand as tightly as he could, knowing that it would just break her small fingers his were wrapped around. He couldn't get the thought out of his head that if he held on tight enough she wouldn't be able to let go of him.

When they reached the airline check-in that she needed Quil's control broke again, this time completely. He felt like something literally snapped inside him and he just couldn't let her leave. He quickly turned to her.

"You don't have to do this! You don't have to go, Claire!"

"Quil!" she said desperately as she teared up looking at him.

Her mascara was almost gone now from all her crying, but it had left small smudges around her eyes where she had wiped away at it and somehow the crying had just enhanced her beauty instead of diminishing it. Noticing how beautiful she was did nothing to add to Quil's control as he tried (and he was really trying) to let her go. He couldn't help it. As much as he wanted to do what was best for her he just _couldn't_ let her walk away. It was like she would be taking his heart away with her, and not in a sappy romantic way, like she would literally be taking one of his most vital organs that he needed every second of everyday, and his survival instincts simply kicked in with a sense of self-preservation.

"No, listen! You don't have to go back to school. We'll just avoid Bennett and Macy." She flinched when he said their names even though he was speaking so quickly he was surprised she could understand him. "We'll just hold up at my place like we did last summer. We can watch _Big Bang_ and hang out with Butch. Just _please_ , Claire, don't go. Just stay! Stay here with me! I'm begging you, Claire, don't go."

"Quil!" she cried, she had to let go of his hand to wipe at her face while she looked back down. "I can't…. I have to go…"

"But what if I'm ready!?" he asked her desperately as she looked back up at him.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

"Last week when I tried to kiss you, you asked if I was ready; If I was ready for more! You didn't want me to kiss you until I was… but I am, Claire, I'm ready! I was ready then, and I'm ready now! I _want_ more. I want to be _with_ you! But I can't if you leave! Just stay and give me a chance to prove that I'm ready for more. I know you want that too! I love you, Claire. I'm in love with you! Just give me a chance to prove it!" he begged, so desperate for her to stay.

She was sobbing into her hand as she looked down at her feet. Quil felt ashamed to do it but like he had no control from stopping himself as he put his hands on her cheeks and his forehead against hers to gain the physical contact he needed to transfer his emotions to her.

And he did. He pushed all his love and fear and longing and desire for her to stay, on her as she cried with her forehead against his and her hand on top of his on her cheek. He would be horrified that he was trying so hard to manipulate her if it weren't for the fact that he was so desperate to get her to stay.

For the first time ever, she pushed all of his emotions back to him, rejecting them and in the process he felt the tiniest bit of her own emotions. He didn't think that she had meant for him to taste them, but he had. She was in pain at leaving, just like he was, but her pain at staying far out-weighed her pain at leaving.

"Claire!" he begged as he started to sob too.

"I can't, Quil! I _can't_ be with you!" she cried out desperately.

"Why!? Why not just try!? I can make you forget about him, about them. Let's just try!" he continued to beg with his face against hers.

She shook her head as she pulled back from him.

"Claire-" he tried again, refusing to let her go, now that his control was so far gone he knew he couldn't stop until he convinced her to stay with him.

"Because!" she seemed to snap painfully as she tried to pull back from his hands that refused to relinquish her.

"Claire!" he cried while trying again to send her his feelings that she was sending right back.

"I'm still in love with him!"

She finally looked up at him as it rushed urgently out of her like she couldn't contain it anymore.

"I _can't_ be with you because I love him!"

It felt like she had slapped him with it.

He finally dropped her and took a step back. He had known that she loved Bennett, and he had no right to expect her to be over it all of ten days after they had broken up, but he was still stunned at how much it hurt him to hear her admit it, especially to admit it like that, as the reason she couldn't be with him.

"I'm sorry, Quil!" She cried like she was in pain. "I want to give you _everything_! I _want_ to be with you! We _belong_ together, I know that! But I _can't_! I have to find a way to get over him so that I can move on, but I can't… not here… not now." She seemed desperate for him to understand.

He nodded at her as he tried to summon any feeling of numbness. She took a deep breath and seemed to pull herself together enough to stop crying.

"I'll call you everyday, okay? And I'll text you all day long, alright? So, we're always together, even if we aren't!"

She suddenly grabbed at her left wrist with her casted right arm. She slipped off the braided leather Quileute promise bracelet that he had made for her years ago. He hadn't even realized she was wearing it.

"Here! Take this, so that you'll know that I'll always come back!"

She stepped up to him and pushed it into his hand a few feet in front of her. Quil took it in his hand as he pulled it up to look at it. It was so small he couldn't believe that it still fit her. Claire couldn't have been older than ten when he had given it to her.

"Quil!" She said, passionately demanding his attention, he looked back down at her as she said, "I will come back to you! Just hold on to this until I do!" and then she stepped up on her toes as she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down to meet her.

And then she kissed him in a way she never had before.

She felt rushed and almost angry but somehow Quil could feel her underlying promise in her kiss. She was telling the truth. She wanted to be there with him, but she just couldn't until she got over her love for someone else. He quickly grabbed her and pulled her body to his, returning her kiss and finally expressing to her how much he wanted to be with her in a way that words never could.

She pulled back after someone walking past whistled at them. She bit her lip and pressed her forehead to his as she came back down on her heels. He just smiled at her, a little relieved in spite of everything. It was amazing to not have to shove aside his feelings for her, to be able to kiss her the way he wanted to. He felt a sense of release at finally being able to revel in his love for her.

Quil pulled his hands up from her waist to hold her soft face and run his fingers through her hair around her face that had fallen out of her ponytail. She closed her eyes and breathed against him. She seemed like she was soaking in their _almost_ perfect moment. He knew it could never be completely perfect while she was still in love with Bennett and then it suddenly clicked for him that _that_ was why she had to leave.

"I have to go." She whispered against him with her eyes still closed.

Quil nodded his head against hers before he pulled her back in and kissed her softly. Once, twice, and then a soft lingering third time before he pulled back.

She couldn't seem to look at him as she wiped at her mouth and her tears and then grabbed her bags and walked away. He could technically walk her all the way to security, but he knew there was no way he could handle another goodbye. He couldn't even stand to watch her walk away as he turned away and swallowed down his own emotions.

He wiped at his face as he looked down at the bracelet that she had left in his hand. It had been a promise that he had given to her years ago; that he would always be there for her. Whatever she needed, he would be there. But she had left it as a promise to him. A promise that she would come back; that she would come back and be with him.

What she _needed_ was to go. She would keep her promise and he needed to keep his.

Quil swallowed again and blinked away his tears, before he turned around and headed to baggage claim to wait for Jacob. He loved Claire and knew she wanted to be there with him too... so just like it had always been assumed;

he would wait for her.

* * *

 ***Author's Note***

 _ **AND...**_ **That's a wrap! Alright, my lovely, beautiful, dear-to-my-heart readers, that's officially the ending of Imprintation! I know you're probably thinking that I'm just the worst and that things aren't really resolved at all but never fear! The story picks up right where it left off in the sequel ...** _Clarification_ **(I'm also considering spelling it** _Claire-ification_ **but idk... that feels really punny... thoughts?)So, I never had any intention to write Claire and Quil's story into multiple books but when I got to this point and realized that I was already 450 pages in and still had a lot of story to tell, it become clear that breaking it up was necessary! I'm sorry if it feels like the story is just randomly stopping but I promise that it gets right into the action in Clarification so I hope you will continue on this journey with me!**

 **I so hope that you enjoyed Imprintation and that if you did you'll consider either leaving me a a review or even sending me a PM telling me what you liked about it! If your just a ghost reader... well that's cool too, thanks for reading!**

 **So, I'm not giving an official date as to when I'll be putting out Clarification but since the vast majority of it is already written I'm just giving myself a 2-3 week timeline before I do. I do know that I will be releasing it chapter by chapter the same way I have with Imprintation, So... If you would like to be updated when I do, then consider following me as an author or simply follow Imprintation as a story because I will be posting the first chapter here and I'll try to include a link or at least instructions to finding Clarification.**

 **Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for reading. I really do hope you enjoyed it because I know how much I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for sharing this experience with me!**

 **xoxo**

 **Jess**


	22. Claireification CH 1

CHAPTER 1

 **Quil:**

Quil looked up toward the ceiling as he tried to keep any moisture out of his eyes. He cleared his throat roughly as he tried to force himself to not think of it as Caire leaving him. He could barely force his feet forward as he continued to move away from the spot she had left him in. He was looking up already but immediately pivoted so that he could see the board of incoming flights. Jacob's flight was twenty minutes ahead of schedule. _Perfect._ He quickly thought to himself as he took a deep breath filled with heavy emotion and sat down at the bench in front of the baggage carousel that Jacob's luggage would eventually come out on.

Quil spent the next forty-five minutes hanging around baggage claim, tossing the tennis ball that was still in his pocket from the day before, up in the air and trying unsuccessfully to not think about Claire currently boarding her flight while he fingered her promise bracelet in his hand and wondered what it would mean for them.

"Um…why do you have makeup on top of two ridiculously large hickeys?" Jake voice suddenly greeted him from behind before he had even started watching for him.

"Hey!" Quil greeted him excitedly as he stood to hug his oldest friend before grazing his now shoulder length hair with his hand as he pulled away. "Nice hair, Man. It's very Fabio."

"Yeah," Jacob laughed unfazed, "Nessie saw a picture of me from high school and suddenly she wants me to grow it back out again! Aw well… my dad would have liked to know that I grew it out long again at least one time, and it gives me a chance to teach the kids more of _our_ heritage instead of all the fifteenth century vampire crap Carlisle is always spewing on them!"

Quil had to laugh in response to just how bizarre Jacob's life truly was. At least he Quil would never have to worry about his kids learning more vampire than human history.

"So, Claire doesn't mess around does she?" Jake commented. He looked up at him in confusion before Jake gestured at his own neck and said, "That's some serious work there."

"Do me a favor and don't mention it. Claire clearly doesn't want anyone to know about it." Quil said while thinking of the makeup on the skin of his neck.

"Sure, sure." Jacob nodded unconcerned, "Where is Claire? I thought she would have come with you."

Quil had to bite the side of his cheek and look away before he cleared his throat so that he could speak.

"She just got on a plane… She's leaving for a while." His voice shook when he admitted it.

"You're kidding. What happened?" Jake asked sounding obviously confused.

"Bennett Callahan. That's what happened." Quil answered, suddenly irrationally frustrated.

"The kid? What did he do?" asked Jacob.

"He imprinted." Quil said as an explanation.

Jake just stared at him blankly for a solid thirty seconds before he said,

"Hold on. Let's get my bag and then you _need_ to catch me up on whatever the hell has been going on here. Do you have anything to drink? Because I have a feeling I'm definitely going to need a drink."

Quil nodded and said, "I have some beer at my place."

Jake gave him an unsatisfied look but then Quil remembered, "Oh, I have that bottle of bourbon my mom gave me for Christmas!"

"That'll work!" Jacob said eagerly as he pulled his bag off the carousel and followed Quil out to his car.

The drive back from Seattle with Jacob was filled with Quil telling him everything that had happened (in deep detail) over the past two weeks with the pack. They were only about twenty minutes to the Makah Reservation when Jake surprised him by asking,

"So, what's happening between you and Claire?"

"What do you mean?" Quil hedged.

He realized that he probably should have expected the question but didn't particularly want to answer it.

"Well two weeks ago she was dating this kid Bennett… who is now a wolf… and has an imprint…. who it sounds like Claire knows personally…. And she just got on a plane the same day…. _AND_ left you with two hickeys that are pulled so deep they look like they hurt…. So, what's going on?"

Quil shrugged and stayed focused on the road instead of looking over at him as he said simply, "Yup. That's pretty much the gist of it…."

Jacob stared at him, obviously annoyed with his vagueness.

"So, why'd she leave?"

Quil's hands clenched down on the steering wheel and he had to force himself to loosen his hold on it before it snapped. He forgot sometimes exactly how long he had known Jacob Black and how Jake had this way of seeing straight to the heart of the matter. He knew he couldn't get away with anymore vague responses, Jacob would just keep bugging him until he gave him real answers, so Quil took a huge breath to brace himself before he could bring himself to admit,

"She's in love with Bennett… She didn't take it great when he imprinted today…in fact, she left because of it…"

Jake seemed a little shocked, but he took it in stride. He nodded his head for a second before he clarified,

"But she's giving you hickeys?"

Quil automatically rubbed at his neck suddenly resenting the hickeys and the way they made the situation look.

"It's not like that…" he said quickly.

"So… she didn't mack on you while she was still in love with someone else? I'm not going to lie, Quil, this looks pretty bad." Jake said like he was pointing out the obvious.

"It really wasn't like that….it was just a one-time thing…." Quil tried to lamely explain.

"Aw, shit, Quil!" Jacob immediately responded, "I left you in charge man! This isn't good…"

"What the hell are you talking about, Jake?" Quil demanded.

Jake _had_ left him in charge and it wasn't a responsibility he had ever asked for or even wanted and yet it was the responsibility he lived up to every single day without fail.

"The way I see it, it's looking like you just took advantage of an emotionally confused sixteen-year-old girl- At least in Washington the age of consent is sixteen, so we won't have a legal issue but, seriously Quil, I should not have to be googling stuff like the age of consent for minors from my flight…" Jacob said like he had a headache at the thought.

"I didn't take advantage of her! Age of consent!? What the hell are you talking about!? I never touched her!" Quil instantly defended as he turned to give Jacob a hard stare, furious at the insinuation.

Jacob just turned to give him a skeptical look. "...Your neck says otherwise."

Quil quickly scoffed.

"I told you that was a one-time thing!"

"Okay, so you touched her just one time." Jacob said with a shrug, clearly not liking that thought much better.

"NO! I never touched her _at all_! She just sort of ….. snuck up on me yesterday… but we made out for like twenty minutes, that was it, end of story!" Quil rushed to defend, he couldn't believe that Jake actually thought that they had a problem here.

He raised his eyebrows and asked skeptically,

"Claire did that to your neck in twenty minutes?"

"YES!" Quil insisted.

Jake seemed like he was trying to digest the idea. "Damn Quil. I'll never be able to think of her as 'sweet little Claire' again…."

Quil laughed in response, he was just relieved that Jake finally believed him that he hadn't done anything with her.

"You have no idea!" Quil told him truthfully.

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked.

"It's likes she just has no idea the effect she has! She drives me completely _CRAZY_ but then acts like it's normal to walk around the house in just her underwear and I'm the one who's insane! She still thinks I don't notice her somehow like that's even possible… How could someone _not_ notice her!?"

It was a huge relief to finally express his pent-up frustration to someone and Quil blew out a huge breath he felt like he had been holding in for weeks now.

Jacob just gave him an evaluating stare before he said,

"Finally got there, did you?"

"What are you talking about?" Quil asked confused.

Jake just shrugged and then said,

"We've just all been wondering when you would get to this point since Claire was about thirteen…. Took you long enough…. but hey, you finally caught on."

"Who's 'all'? What point?" Quil asked even more confused.

"You know…. me, Sam, Seth, Leah, Paul, Embry,….basically all of us…." Jake answered casually.

Quil shook his head in disbelieving confusion, "So what? Are you saying that all of the original pack has just been getting together to wonder when I would notice Claire?"

"Well not _officially_ , we've just all mentioned it in passing over the last few years that we wondered when you would _FINALLY_ hit this point. We all knew Claire was young, but you wouldn't _know_ it just by looking at her and so we just expected you to hit it sooner than this. Brady hit it with Sofia before she was even sixteen and then we all figured you wouldn't be far behind but that was what? Three years ago now…?" he explained casually.

"What are you _talking_ about? What phase? What point!?" Quil asked more confused than ever and starting to feel frustrated that so much of the pack had been talking about it behind his back for so long.

Jacob looked slightly exasperated like it was obvious as he tried to explain, "Claire's your imprint, right?"

Quil just nodded, _obviously_ Claire was his imprint.

"So _that_ point, the point where she became your imprinted relationship."

"What?" Quil asked still as confused as ever.

"Look, believe me I get it. I imprinted on Renesmee the day she was freaking born, okay? So, for a while there was nothing else there, just her and me basically chilling through her childhood, right? And it was great, we had a ton of fun." Quil started nodding, remembering Claire's childhood the same way. "But then one day she just came down the stairs in a short dress that she had worn probably a million times before, but that day… whoa… man she just hit me like a ton of bricks… it was this crazy, intense, physical attraction that made me want to rip that dress off her right there." Jacob sounded blown away just remembering it. Quil nodded again understanding exactly the type of attraction Jacob was describing. "And after that it was always there, I could never not notice her again."

"So, it always starts that way? With that intensely crazy _need_ for her?" Quil asked him finally understanding the point Jake was referring to.

"Yup. Well for those of us that find our imprints when their still young… the others, it all hits them at the same time when they first imprint." Jacob replied.

Quil nodded remembering the sensations he had experienced in the minds of some of the other wolves.

"So, I'll always…?" Quil started and then trailed off suggestively.

"Want to rip her clothes off every time you see her? Yup. It never seems to get much less intense." Jake answered his unfinished question.

Quil had to shake his head, dazed at the idea of having to live the rest of his life with that fire in him burning so intensely for Claire that it was almost painful, that had been messing with his head so much for the last week.

Jacob laughed like he could see directly into Quil's thoughts.

"It does get easier to handle when you're actually getting some real action… this type of teasing shit…" Jake said as he poked Quil hard right in the neck, "just makes it worse."

Quil nodded thinking that made sense but not seeing any relief in sight.

"How long _has_ it even been since you had any _real_ action?" Jake continued undeterred.

"Since before Claire." Quil admitted with a shrug.

Jacob started laughed again, "No wonder you aren't handling it!"

"Did Renesmee ever do this to you?" Quil suddenly asked him sincerely while gesturing at his neck.

"Oh yeah! She teased me all the time that first six months we got together. Drove me absolutely _insane_. Why do you think we got married so fast? She made it clear she wasn't up for anything less than a real permanent commitment and I knew that there was no way I wanted anything else but her so…." Jacob answered lightly.

Quil nodded with understanding, that all made perfect sense to him.

"So, what happens next?" Quil asked him, hoping for guidance.

"You fall stupidly in love with her until you can't think straight anymore." Jake said simply while rolling his eyes like the whole thing seemed ridiculous.

Quil nodded before urging, "Then what?"

Jacob turned sharply to look at Quil, obviously surprised to realize that he was already at this stage.

"…Then you tell her." He said while obviously watching for Quil's reaction who just kept nodding and asked significantly,

"And then?"

"…Then she has to choose you." Jacob said simply as if it was the only answer he had to give him.

Quil blew out a huge breath in frustration, wishing that he was at a step where he could actually actively do something instead of leaving the ball entirely in Claire's court. They were just pulling up to the garage. Jacob just sympathetically clapped him on the back.

"Come on let's go get that drink you promised me."

Quil nodded and led him inside where Butch seemed as sad as Quil was that Claire wasn't with him.

"You got a dog?" Jacob asked sounding surprised.

"Yup. With Claire…. two days ago." Quil emphasized as he pulled the bottle of bourbon out of the bottom of his nightstand, for some reason Claire never looked back there.

Jake just whistled long and slow as if he was sympathetic to how badly Quil wanted to have some sort of real commitment from an undecided Claire.

After that, they sat drinking together in silence for about thirty minutes before Jacob seemed to take a bracing breath and then said,

"Alright. I need to meet the kid."

Quil finally felt the relief of Jacob taking his responsibilities back. He blew out a relaxed breath and answered,

"I'll have to track him down."

Jacob nodded his head at Quil as he pulled out his phone and pulled up Bennett's contact. It rang six times and then went to voicemail. Quil didn't trust himself to leave a voicemail that wasn't full of undue frustration toward this kid who hadn't chosen any of what had happened in the last ten days…

"Any idea where he'd be?" Jacob asked him when he hung up without leaving a message.

"Nope." Quil said, popping the P.

Bennett wasn't on patrol tonight and Quil had no idea what the kid did with his time if he wasn't being babysat. Quil knew that even before he was a wolf he spent all his time either playing sports he was now no longer allowed to play due to his new supernatural abilities, or with Claire.

"He imprinted on Claire's friend today, right? So, let's track her down." Jacob replied.

It took less than twenty minutes before they spotted Bennett's mom's car parked behind the football field of the high school. Quil pulled the Camaro up less than six inches behind it before he and Jake got out and walked around to the driver's side. Bennett and Macy were going at it so hot and heavy in the backseat of his mom's crossover that they didn't even see the two giant sized men coming for them.

Quil had zero hesitation when he abruptly yanked opened the back door and grabbed Bennett by the back of his neck from where he was on top of Macy, mostly horizontal, and yanked him roughly out of the car.

"What the hell!? Quil?" Bennett asked, clearly shocked.

Quil just threw him directly to Jacob as he grabbed his T-shirt off the floor of the backseat and then slammed the door on Macy who was hurriedly re-buttoning her blouse.

"Bennett, meet your real pack leader. Jake, meet the newest dumbass to join our ranks." Quil said as calmly as he could manage.

Jacob let go of Bennett, so he could shrug into his shirt as he calmly asked Quil,

"I thought you said Claire's friend that he imprinted on had a boyfriend?"

"She does as far as I know… Bennett?" Quil asked pointedly as Jacob joined him in staring him down.

Bennett just shrugged sheepishly and said, "We're soulmates, right?"

"Oh… they're soulmates, Quil! That explains it! …How long were you with your imprint before you ever kissed her like that?" Jacob asked Quil pointedly.

"Fourteen years, Jake." He answered readily.

Jacob whistled through his teeth and said, "I think that's a record… I know Sam didn't wait that long with Emily."

"Or Jared with Kim." Quil added helpfully, knowing exactly where Jacob was going with this.

"True! How long did Brady wait with Sofia?" Jake asked him while grabbing onto the back of Bennett's neck again.

"About a year. How long did you wait with Renesmee?" Quil replied.

"Almost five years." Jacob admitted with a casual shrug. "Now that's nothing on Quil waiting for Claire but it sure as hell beats one _freaking_ _DAY_!" Jake continued seeming to get louder and slower with each distinctive word.

"Too true!" Quil agreed readily.

"Now I think Paul was the fastest with Rachel. Man, that sucked Bennett, let me tell you because she's my sister and I got a front row ticket to Paul's dirty mind, but remind me Quil, how long did it take Paul to get to her like that?" Jake continued.

"Maybe a week and a half." Quil mused.

"A week and a half… That was the record to beat… and boy did you beat it! Quil, how long has it been since Bennett imprinted on Claire's friend back there?" Jacob's tone seemed to find a threatening edge underneath its continued friendliness.

"Well Jake, it looks all of about eight hours!" Quil answered seriously.

"Eight hours, Bennett! Wow. You must be a real badass! Look at you already hooking up with Claire's friend! What's her name again?"

"Macy! And quit calling her 'Claire's friend', it's not like that!" Bennett shot back, and Quil was impressed with his nerve if nothing else. If Quil could take him down in two seconds than Jake could do it in one…. Or maybe half of one…. not to mention the fact that Jacob was about a solid three inches taller than he and Bennett.

"Oh, I think it's exactly like that! Let me make something clear to you, Bennett. You think you have pull with the pack because you're a wolf and what? Because Leah is a sucker for a side kick?"

"That's exactly what I said." Quil chimed in casually, backing Jacob up from where he was leaning against the car a few feet from them.

"But _Claire_ has been a part of this family for the last fourteen years. In fact, that girl was still in diapers when you found her, wasn't she, Quil?" Jake asked without looking away from Bennett as he kept staring him down,

"Yes, she was." Quil responded confidently.

"So, when I see the newest member of _MY_ pack, disrespecting her, along with whatever her name is in the backseat there, not to mention what's-her-name's boyfriend. Well then… it's my job to teach that dumbass his place." Jacob told him just as Quil's phone started vibrating in his pocket.

Quil pulled it out to see Claire's beautiful face from her caller ID photo showing that she was calling him much sooner than he would have expected her to. He could hear Jacob saying, "Does she even know what you are yet!?" As he railed into Bennett which felt immensely satisfying to Quil. He didn't hear Bennett's response but then Jacob said furiously, "Oh, she knows she's your imprint!? Well what would we do without that!?" Just as Quil answered Claire's call,

"Hey, babe! Did you land already!? How was your flight?"

"Hi!" Her sweet voice responded sounding much happier than she had when she had left, as Quil continued walking away from Jacob still railing into Bennett behind him. "Yup. I'm just taking the tram to baggage claim, but I wanted to tell you that I landed, and the flight was good! Is that Jacob yelling in the background!?" She asked surprised.

"Yeah, it is! We're just getting some business done. So, tell me about your flight!" He responded quickly trying to distract her.

"There's not a lot to tell, it was pretty uneventful. The flight crew was really overly helpful because of my broken arm!" She offered up helpfully.

Quil just laughed knowing how important it was to her to feel independent and how much she didn't enjoy being fussed over publicly and being made the center of attention.

"I'm sorry, Claire, that sounds awful!" He teased her cheerfully.

She laughed in response and then asked, "So, what's Jake so upset about?"

"Just …..Collin…" he answered vaguely as he heard Bennett say indignantly to Jacob behind him, "Quil has two hickeys on his neck right now!"

"Mmhmm, is that right?" She said disbelievingly.

"Yup!" Quil said innocently.

"'Kay, well I want to talk to him." She replied without hesitating.

"What? Who?" He asked surprised.

"Jacob. I want to talk to him, you know before he rips 'Collin' apart for my benefit." She answered unfazed.

"Ooh… I don't think that's such a good-"

"Quil…." She said with a distinct warning tone in her voice letting him know how serious she was about her request.

"Alright." He instantly caved. "Whatever makes you happy."

"Thank you!" She replied immediately sounding bright again.

Jacob cut off from his angry rant at Bennett standing two feet in front of him as Quil whistled for his attention.

"It's Claire. She wants to talk to you!" He said as he tossed the phone at him and saw how nervous Bennett immediately looked about the fact that Claire wanted to speak with Jacob.

"Hey, Claire!" Jacob said in a surprisingly bright tone considering how deadly he had sounded when Quil interrupted him.

Quil couldn't hear Claire on the other end so she must have been purposefully speaking softly enough so that no one would overhear.

"Oh, great! Yeah, Nessie and the kids are great… Yeah, they miss you too. We need to fly you and Quil out to Paris this winter for a visit …." He laughed at something she said, "….. is that so?..." he asked doubtfully. "…well that's true… and what about Quil…. Well I can't argue with that….." laughter again "Alright, Claire, well it was great talking to you!... Okay, I will, I'm sure they send their love back." Jacob finally looked back at Quil as he tossed the phone back and said, "She wants to speak to you again."

Quil quickly walked away again before he turned and said into the phone, "Hey, what was that about?"

"Just setting the record straight." She answered simply.

"You didn't trust me to do that?".

"More like I don't trust you to be unbiased." She said good-naturedly.

"So, then what did you say to him?" He asked her curiously.

"Oh, just making sure we're on the same page." She responded. He laughed a moment later when he realized she was quoting him from the day before when she had asked what her dad had said to him.

"Touché." He replied.

"Isn't it!?" She laughed and then said, "Hey, I gotta go though, my bags just came up."

"Alright, sweetheart. Call me before you go to sleep?" He asked her easily even as he bit down on the inside of his cheek and waited for her reply.

"Promise." She answered sweetly without hesitating, "Oh, gotta go, there's my aunt! 'Kay love you!"

"I love you too." He responded though probably with a lot more meaning. He was completely surprised that she had chosen to say it at all after their goodbye at the airport. "Bye, hon." He said at the same time she said, "Bye!" And hung up.

Quil got back to Bennett and Jacob just as Jacob was saying,

"Quil's going to take Macy home now. You get to be _my_ sidekicktonight while I get to go sort Collin out next."

" _I_ should at least take Macy home!" Bennett immediately resisted.

But Jacob just laughed as Quil scoffed and said, "Bennett." At the same time he clapped a hand down on his shoulder. "I had to trust you with _my_ imprint for _four solid months_ … It's time for me to return the favor! Besides, you need a chance to get to know Jacob better!"

Bennett seemed like he would be fine to not know Jacob any better but didn't have any choice in the matter as Quil let him go and opened the door to the backseat where Macy was still hiding out.

"Hey, Macy. I'm Quil, I'm going to take you home now, so why don't you grab your stuff and hop in my car." Quil said in a friendly tone not wanting to freak her out.

She just looked at him in what seemed confusion for a second before she said, "Wait, aren't you Claire's uncle?"

"What did she just say!?" Jacob asked in complete disbelief before he started laughing hysterically, "Is that what people think!? That Claire's your niece!? No wonder she doesn't want people to know about your hickeys! Talk about awkward questions!"

" _Claire_ gave you those hickeys!?" Macy immediately asked sounding both disbelieving and scandalized.

"Thanks a lot, Jake!" Quil immediately responded annoyed.

"Sorry!" Jake said as he kept laughing.

"Come on, Macy, I'll take you home." Quil said already counting down until he could get home and wait for Claire to call again.

He said goodbye to Jake by kissing him serenely on the cheek the way they only ever did when they wanted to freak out a new wolf into thinking they were now a part of the Quileute wolf mafia or something.

Jacob responded with his usual perfect timing when he said seriously, "Welcome to the Family, Macy. We always take care of our own." before he clapped Bennett hard on the back.

The entire drive home Macy hounded Quil with questions. This wouldn't have been surprising since she was now Bennett's imprint and entitled to know everything, except that Bennett hadn't told her anything about being a wolf yet and all of her questions were about him, Claire, and their relationship.

"So, you _aren't_ Claire's uncle?" She accused him.

" _Definitely_ not." He responded immediately, wanting to make that as clear as possible.

"Then why would she say that you are?" She instantly challenged him.

"Because our relationship is complicated and it's not something most people can understand." He quickly explained trying in vain to answer her questions as quickly as she was asking them.

"So, you're in a relationship?" She fired at him obviously looking to find the dirt.

"Are you and Bennett in a relationship?" He fired right back at her.

"How old are you?" She shot next without answering his question.

"Twenty-four." He answered, immediately trying to make himself as close to Claire's age as he could believably get away with.

"And Claire kept her relationship with you a secret? That's why she lied about you being her uncle?" She instantly asked so she must have believed his lie about his age.

It was exhausting. She kept up like that until he literally shoved her (gently) out the door she had already opened while continuing to barrage him with personal questions that were honestly none of her business. By the time he left her on the sidewalk in front of her house and drove quickly away he had a much better understanding of why Claire couldn't stay here to be around Macy and Bennett.

He just wanted to go home and wait for Claire's call saying she was going to sleep so that he could too. He was relieved when she called right as he was walking through the door and he didn't have to wait at all to hear her voice as he threw himself down on his bed exhausted. Butch immediately curled up next to him and laid his head on Quil's stomach where Quil pet him lazily as he got to hear the most beautiful sound of the voice of the woman he was so in love with, speaking softly to him for over an hour about nothing in particular before she quietly said 'love you!' again and said goodnight. Quil hung up the phone and smiled to himself as he fell asleep on top of his bed fully clothed with Butch on top of him.

 ***Author's note***

 **Okay, so I am finally, finally, finally back from my ridiculously long hiatus! I know, I know you're probably crazy annoyed right now because of all the false promises I made in regards to a timeline of when I would be back but I have FINALLY finished Claireification! That's right my friends! the book is complete so hold on to your butts because you are now about to get chapter after chapter rather quickly! Probably day by day actually! EECKKK! I can't wait for you guys to read it! So much so that chapter 2 is already up! yup! All chapters will now be uploaded to s/12954366/1/Claireification so please go there and follow/favorite to continue to be updated about each chapter!**

 **xoxo!**


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